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Qubes apd Spheres 


ip 


jdumai? Cife. 


BY 


F. A. WlGGIft. 


1 Every human soul is a sculptor 


BOSTON: 

BANNER OF LIGHT PUB. CO. 

9 Bosworth Street. 

1899. 







649 

By 

All 

CUBES AND SPHERES 
IN HUMAN LIFE. 





o 


8 


Copyright 
F. A. Wiggin. 
1899. 

rights reserved. 






PRESSWORK BY 

American Printing and Engraving Co. 




Qubes ai}d Spheres. 




Ubwwy QIj CiSfa.nirt ? > 

| Tm Copied h^,. >-o 

X-V / 

y9frir,/f?9 

2-foS~D2- 


SECaNE? (3 

delivered kt 

QRD£ft DIVISION i 


Twoeopips ^ecciveo. 


Copyright 
By F. A. Wiggin. 
1899. 

All rights reserved. 



CUBES AND SPHERES 
IN HUMAN LIFE. 


PRESSWORK BY 

American Printing and Engraving Co. 
























TO 

Hip ffiax:&nts r 

THIS BOOK 
IS 


AFFECTIONATELY 


NSCRI BED. 











































CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER 



PAGE 

I. 

Cubes and Spheres . 

. 


I 

II. 

Attunement .... 



I I 

III. 

Desire and Work 



20 

IV. 

Wisdom and Purpose 



. 28* 

V. 

Thought . 



• 37 

VI. 

Self-Assertion .... 



• 45 

VII. 

Perception and Reflection . 



• 54 

VIII. 

Service. 



• 6 3 

IX. 

Inherent Power 



. 72 

X. 

Life’s Expression 



82 

XI. 

Receptivity .... 



• 93 

XII. 

Individual Effort . 



. 102 

XIII. 

Evolution and Involution 



. 106 

XIV. 

Progression .... 



• 113 













t 


CHAPTER I. 

CUBES AND SPHERES. 

T N the beginning was the Law, and the Law was 
1 with God, and the Law was God. 

Inherent in every law is a principle which must 
gain manifestation through the process of evolution. 
Each advancing stage of planetary unfoldment from 
the nebulous fire-mist, from the darkness brooding 
upon the face of the waters, until the fiat, “ Let 
there be light,” clothed this whirling globe with life 
and beauty, as a fitting abode for that topmost flower 
on evolution’s tree — Man — all this marvellous cres¬ 
cendo in Nature’s mighty anthem only bespeaks the 
infinite necessity of the Eternal Mind to express its 
creative thought. All Nature is but the emanation, 
the throbbing energy of that Primeval Flame which 
gives force and potency to every law. All life is the 
mighty pulsation of the Great Breath, and progress is 
its watchword—the grandest of all laws. 

But “the mills of the gods grind slow, though they 


2 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


grind exceeding fine.” Eons of years are required 
to perfect a planet’s birth, and yet impulsive, impa¬ 
tient man essays to mount his ladder of growth at a 
single bound. 

The grace and beauty of an Apollo lurks long in the 
rough-hewn boulder from the quarry before its majes¬ 
tic outlines are gradually uncovered and revealed 
under the skilful hand of the artist. The diamond 
from the mine, jagged, misshapen, almost opaque, 
suggests nothing of the brilliance and fire to be re¬ 
leased under the polishing wheel. 

Similarly, human beings are like unto cubes until 
the attrition of Life’s experiences by which Law is 
comprehended, rounds off the angular corners, until 
the sharp edges are wrought upon by the design of 
the Infinite Artist, when the cube becomes a sphere — 
the fittest emblem of Deity — whose image and like¬ 
ness man is intended to reflect. 

The grinding, crushing process of Nature comes to 
appear as a fact sometime, in the life of almost 
every one. Only a spiritual discrimination, enriched 
with that wisdom which experience alone can give, 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


3 


will be able to perceive that each expression of life 
is both the grist and the gristmill, the masticator and 
the masticated. 

Deity, as expressed in Nature and in man, may be 
called a mammoth machine, composed of an infinite 
number of parts, all working in a beautiful, har¬ 
monious observance of perfect order, whenever indi¬ 
viduals representing parts of the great machine are 
properly geared or adjusted, and consequently are in 
right relation to the whole. But whether adjusted 
or maladjusted, in accord or discord, humanity be¬ 
longs to the machinery of Nature. The first state, 
the primal type, whether in the domain of mind or 
matter, is at best prismatical and usually rough, 
jagged, and most distinguished for severity of out¬ 
line. The never-ceasing grind of evolution’s wheels 
rubs off the sharp and angular lines common to all 
primal states, and this crucial process is not always 
comprehended as a kind stroke of Nature, until, as a 
result of it, the soul becomes conscious of its purpose 
in a symmetrical or spherical self-hood, adapted to a 
frictionless cosmos. 


4 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


Advisedly, have we considered man as a wheel, or 
cog, in this stupendous machine of Nature. He is 
not dispossessed thereby of innate and natural genera¬ 
tive energy to help propel the machinery of which he 
is a part. He is the grist and the grinder, the 
involved and the evolved. In a comprehensive con¬ 
ception, man is not a machine at all, but a specific 
conception will certainly determine him one. 

“ It slayeth and it saveth, nowise moved 
Except into the working out of doom : 

Its threads are Love and Life; and Death and Pain 
The shuttles of its loom. 

“ Such is the Law which moves to righteousness, 

Which none at last can turn aside, or stay; 

The heart of it is Love, the end of it 
Is peace and consummation sweet. Obey ” ! 

The cold marble statue is not the artist, and yet it 
speaks, in degree, the artistic ability of the sculptor. 
The sculptor can be said to live in the statue, it is a 
part of his life. The vibrating artistic energy of the 
painter throbs in every rolling wave of his pictured 
ocean, and is the motive power propelling his 
mirrored boat as she dashes onward, cutting and 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


5 


spurning his realistic sea. The baseball player 
hurls from his hand the sphere, and it cuts through 
the atmosphere with the velocity of the wind. You 
do not see the player follow the ball, and yet it goes 
no further than he goes. 

The machine of Nature is not man, yet it is a 
theatre for his life’s expression. Man is the ma¬ 
chine, and he is also the intelligent motive power 
which inspires it with activity. To portray man as a 
piece of blind, unintelligent mechanism is to do him a 
great injustice, and to ignore his real entity. For man 
is a more important actor in the running of this uni¬ 
verse than has ever been recognized. He is the 
engine and the engineer. He is the forester, with 
axe in hand, who will make a smoother, riper world 
for the occupancy of generations yet unborn. His 
importance as a machine must not be subordinated to 
his still greater and more sublime importance as a 
mechanic. The soul, inheriting creative impulse and 
power, is co-worker with the Over-Soul in its evolu¬ 
tionary purposes; the planet ripens as mankind 
advances. 


CUBES AND SPHERES . 


“ But,” says the Spirit of All Time to the Spirit 
of To-day, 

“ Tell us, how about your men ? 

Shall they like live automatons, still drudge their 
lives away? 

When the rivers, tides and lightnings join to 
help them on their way ” ? 

Says the Spirit of All Time to the Spirit of 
To-day, 

“ Tell us, how about your men? 

Yes, harness every river above the cataract’s 
brink, 

And then unharness man. 

“To earth’s reservoir of fire let your giant shaft¬ 
ings sink, 

And scourge your dredging thunderbolts — but 
give man time to think ; 

Throw your bridles on the rivers, curb them at 
the cataract’s brink, 

And then unharness man.” 

Says the Spirit of All Time, “ In this climax of 
the years, 

Make no machine of man. 

Your harnessed rivers, panting, are as lyrics in 
my ears, 

And your jockeyed lightnings clattering are as 
music of the spheres, 

But’t is well that you remember in this climax of 
the years, 

Make no machine of man.” 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


7 


The discovery of the universality, the immuta¬ 
bility and infallible accuracy of natural law and espe¬ 
cially its eternal progression, the science of chemistry, 
of geology and astronomy, voicing as they do the 
glorious evangel of Evolution, are all grand revela¬ 
tions to man, bringing him a knowledge of his true 
and real relation to the universe. Emerson says, 
“In nature all is useful, all is beautiful. It is 
therefore beautiful because it is alive, moving, repro¬ 
ductive. It is therefore useful because it is sym¬ 
metrical and fair.” Mankind, in harmony with 
Nature, has a destiny to evolve. No good can 
accrue to any one by pointing, with pride, to a blue- 
blooded ancestral pedigree, as if this were all suffi¬ 
cient to meet any demand upon his future. Neither 
can personal responsibility be evaded upon the plea 
of unfavorable environments. The idler is met by 
the inexorable law of Nature’s demand for personal 
activity. If, in reply to this demand, the careless 
spendthrift of opportunities exclaims, “ I am not 
yet ready to move on,” then the grinding wheels of 
Nature begin their work of atrophy. If the indi- 


8 


CUBES AND SPHERES . 


vidual will not work and be worked upon, Nature, 
demanding activity, will through the process of 
rust, atrophy and decay, gradually dispose of the 
rough, angular lines of being until he also becomes a 
spherical co-worker in Nature’s purposes. 

And yet Nature never deals an unkindly blow. 
Her operations are but processes of life’s expression, 
by which are evolved integrity, virtue and perfection. 
For this, the bodies of priceless souls, those dear to 
humanity’s weal, have been burned at the stake, but 
from their ashes other witnesses have arisen. No 
cruel rack can subdue, no fire can burn, no abyss of 
ignorant persecution can swallow up the truth, or 
destroy its messengers. Truth is vital, eternal — 
Nature and Truth are one. 

The great Beethoven became deaf, and upon an old 
discordant harpsichord would breathe forth tones 
which he supposed were matchless harmonies. When 
Nature undertakes to evolve the melodies of divine 
love from so many chords which are unresponsive, 
from others which imperfectly vibrate, we may well 
question the possible outcome of her efforts. Let 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


9 


no one forget that in perfect love is all harmony, and 
under the manipulation of this divine law all strings 
upon the dilapidated instruments of human beings 
will somewhere, sometime be brought into divine 
and perfect accord of vibration. God’s thoughts are 
not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. His 
methods are attuned to the melody and rhythm of 
divine love, which our efforts so feebly copy. 

The untutored savage made his hatchet, or toma¬ 
hawk, from the stone which was found most nearly 
resembling the desired shape, or he selected his 
model from the thin, wedge-shaped lump of iron, and 
ground it to a sharp edge. The tutored mind, the 
scientific man, with no thought of shape in his selec¬ 
tion, collects pieces of iron and casts the fragments 
into a heated furnace; when it becomes a liquid 
stream of fire, he pours it into a mould to be cooled. 
The savage, observing it, laughs in derision, and 
exclaims “A pretty tomahawk” ! Heated again, it 
is drawn into the lengthened bar, under the heavy 
blows of the trip-hammer. Then for many days 
packed in ashes, salt and charcoal, it must endure the 


IO 


CUBES AND SPHERES . 


heat of the furnace, when it becomes steel. Later, 
under the hand of the blacksmith, subjected to heat 
and cold, it is shaped, polished and completed. 
Place the rude tomahawk of the savage by the side 
of this finished implement of warfare, and who will 
deny to the product of science a vast superiority ? 

Nature takes the native ore of life’s possibilities 
and smelts and casts and draws and bakes and 
hammers and fashions and tempers as her wisdom 
directs, and who shall question, in view of results, the 
beauty of her finished work ? The beauty inherent 
in the archetypal pattern must eventually gain a per¬ 
fect expression. 


A TTUNEMENT. 


I l 


CHAPTER II. 


ATTUNEMENT. 



HE laws of Nature are eternal and unchanging, 


x and the music of her voice proclaims from every 
note on the keyboard of her vibrating heart, the love 
of God. Are our ears attuned to her music, or is 
this melody — so grand and deep — but a jargon of 
perplexities and jarring confusions? No note of 
harmony ever awakens the appreciation of mankind 
without registering itself somewhere in his nature, 
in imperishable characters. But his attention must 
be arrested, his ear attuned less to mundane discords 
and accidentals, and vibrate more keenly to the music 
of the spheres. 

How lavish of harmony is Nature in her every 
expression. God sits at His grand organ, whose 
bellows are filled and operant with the inspiration of 
His love. He presses the deep bass notes of His 
vast keyboard, anon the thunders peal and crash, 


12 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


bearing a message of purification to the world. The 
tinkling raindrops descend as His fingers weave the 
plaintive-toned melody of a minor key, and as He 
strikes the shrill treble of the upper keys, the cur¬ 
tain of Night is furled, the baton of Dawn is raised 
to summon a vast feathered orchestra to activity. 

What unspeakable pleasure for the harmony-loving 
soul to break from sleep’s enfolding embrace long 
before she willingly relinquishes her hold, to thus 
catch the first faint note, divinely sweet, bubbling 
forth from the throat of some little bird-friend, fol¬ 
lowed by another and another, until the music, which 
the wealth of cities can never buy, swells into lofti¬ 
est peans, carols of richest cadence, blending in 
sweetest rhythmic chorus into a grand forest sym¬ 
phony. At such an hour, how the soul of man and 
all that is within him, with every breath, renders 
praise and thanksgiving for the privilege of living. 

Color also has its harmonies as well as those vibra¬ 
tions of the same ether which produce sound. The 
bird orchestra introduces the chief actor in Nature’s 
drama, the great Magician, the grand old Monarch 


A TTUNEMENT. 


13 


of the day. The mountains and hilltops catch first 
the golden rays of His universal beneficence. The 
valleys of the green-carpeted earth surrounding the 
lakes which mirror this sunrise glory, wait longer 
to receive the touch of His bright diamond-tipped 
arrows, but they are not forgotten, and are soon like¬ 
wise bathed in splendor. 

When did ever the faintest hint of a pleasant truth 
reach a soul to disappoint it, even though its coming 
seemed long delayed? To all that are living in the 
valley of discord, not attuned with'Nature’s harmony, 
to whom her ways seem hard and unjust, and who, 
from the heart of their anguish deny to God the 
attributes of love, mercy and judgment, seeing only 
the visitations of affliction and chastisement, the 
darkness in which they are enveloped, let them lift 
up their eyes to the hills from whence cometh 
strength, and where light already abides. Look, dear 
souls, to the heights of your own beings, and the 
Divine Light, of which the glorious God of day is a 
feeble symbol, will enkindle anew in your hearts the 
fire of hope. The growth which any other soul has 




14 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


gained, you, in the ripeness of time shall likewise 
obtain, for ye are gods in embryo. Rich experience 
stands ready to attest to this fact, that it is far more 
profitable, as well as congenial, to work in accord 
with the laws of Nature than to be worked upon by 
those laws. The first, in the order of universal 
experience, is to be worked upon, for it is the design 
of Nature that mankind shall progress. Rapid and 
healthy progression also demands certain training in 
preparatory schools of existence. Nature leads, 
drives, and propels, until all life is brought into com¬ 
panionship with one of the most divine friends to be 
found upon the highway of life—Aspiration. We 
journey along in the slow-moving, jostling, jarring 
cart of circumstances, until the station of Aspiration 
is reached, when we board her train, and, Love supply¬ 
ing the motive power, we glide along over a straight, 
ascending road to the terminus of Realization. 

Let none be discouraged who are being worked 
upon, and cast down, overthrown and well-nigh torn 
asunder, dragged or driven, “For I reckon that the 
sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be 


A TTUNEMENT. 


*5 

compared with the glory which shall be revealed to 
us.” “ It is God that worketh in you both to will and 
to do of His own good pleasure.” It is His pleasure 
(as it will be your future glory) to remove all angu¬ 
larities from your life, and to shape and fashion you 
into symmetrical and spherical perfectness, to make 
you perfect “even as your Father in heaven is per¬ 
fect.” For neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor 
things to come, height nor depth, nothing can ever 
separate you from the love of God and eventual 
reflection of His likeness. Men can bask in the 
beneficent rays of God’s love and for a time seem to 
be unchanged thereby, but this love is destined some¬ 
where, sometime, to warm this lump of apparently 
dead clay into life. 

Henry Ward Beecher once said: “The fact that 
God’s love is boundless and infinite is no evidence 
that it shall carry benefit to all.” On the contrary, 
it is all sufficient, and eventually brings to all 
humanity an absolute knowledge of its universal 
power. Nature never hurries. Mankind must emerge 


16 CUBES AND SPHERES. 

from that too common belief that the brief span of 
one earthly experience is sufficient to work out the 
destiny of Eternity. Beecher also said that, ‘‘The 
fact that God loves, and is so good, should lay no 
foundation for the plea that men may go on and do 
as they please.” Here the great preacher has most 
truly spoken, for if such pleas gain acceptance, sooner 
or later men will discover it to be a foundation built 
upon the sand, as the upheaval of evolution’s advanc¬ 
ing waves will destroy it. God, as expressed in 
Nature, demands and compels progress of every 
soul. The soul of mankind, by that law, will be 
compelled to march on until aspiration, true and 
pure, crowns its advance, when its highest pleasure 
will be to do only those things which are just and 
right. 

The new-born child would, of itself, be unable to 
sustain itself in the body for a single day. It came 
here, however perfect in other respects, altogether 
incapable and powerless of sustaining its own exist¬ 
ence. The tender, watchful care of the mother fully 
supplies this deficiency, and day by day she feels, 


A TTUNEMENT. 


17 

while enfolding the child in her arms, her own 
strength, reincarnated in that of her child. This 
care is never for a day suspended until in the child 
the power of self-support is realized, and then that 
love, which has prompted all her attention for the 
child, goes ever on through all time and eternity. 
That mother-love was supplied from the inex¬ 
haustible fountain of Infinite Love, that love which 
is everlasting ; it endureth forever. God has placed 
the germ of Himself in everything that lives, and 
everything has life because God is life, and God 
dwells innately in His every expression. 

Why is man so often, apparently at least, cruelly 
treated during a mundane experience ? Because he 
has, too often, elected to environ himself with naught 
but the purely material things of life. When 
exclusively associated with material interests he 
becomes weighted and clogged with its gravity, 
which is a hindrance to spiritual progress. Gross 
instincts wed us to the earth. Break that bond of 
desire, divorce yourself from materiality, using it 
only as a stepping-stone to spiritual benefits. Forget 


i8 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


the ties that bind you to earth, free yourself from 
the impulses that drag you downward, feel the truth 
that you live in eternity to-day as much as the kindred 
souls who have passed beyond the vail, commune 
with invisible potencies.. Give your thoughts eleva¬ 
tion and sublimity, and you will be led away from a 
thousand perplexities of materiality into a better and 
happier life. 

God’s table is ever spread with a most bountiful 
provision of the delicacies of all seasons. Why sit 
and sip the cup of sorrow ? Through many a sad, 
yet profitable experience, humanity will learn the 
lessons contained in the divine book of Nature. In 
earlier days, human strength was the motive power 
for accomplishing the purposes of life. This very 
strength, when exerted on the mental plane, con¬ 
trolled the wild animal as a servant, which measu¬ 
rably lightened the burden of human toil, while in 
later days, science furnishing such agencies as steam, 
air and electricity, has made the toil of man almost a 
pastime. Upon a higher plane of living the burden 
of human toil must be lightened, the understanding 


A TTUNEMENT. 


19 


of how to co-operate with Nature needs illumination 
and revealment, the mentality of mankind must be 
quickened to more perfectly dominate the material, 
the spirit which man is, gain a fuller expression. 


20 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


CHAPTER III. 


DESIRE AND WORK. 


HE birthright of desire is of priceless value. 



1 Inclination, long entertained, converts itself 
into a faculty. The.establishment of a faculty demon¬ 
strates the verity of the fact to which it is related. 
All types of ignorance are conditions from which 
the aspiring soul wishes to be emancipated. Semi¬ 
ignorance still obtains and claims its subjects 
everywhere. Unpleasant as this truth may be, a 
consciousness of the fact ever brings with it, as 
most delightful company, the bright Angel of Hope. 
The value of desire will be measurably propor¬ 
tionate to the degree of realization of human imper¬ 
fection and to the persistence of aim in attaining to 
the true and faultless. “ The truth shall make you 
free.” Desire in its highest expression is one with 
true prayer. It is prayer when strong and fervent. 

“ With every aspiration, the soul is on its knees.” 



DESIRE AND WORK\ 


21 


A selfish wish is only a base counterfeit of real 
desire and earnest purpose. 

We can conceive of no true prayer unless it is 
born of a sincere purpose. A man gives his heart 
to God whenever he desires to be like Him. The 
precious privilege of prayer should be ignored by 
none, and its importance cannot be too strongly 
emphasized. Yet none should be encouraged to 
pray for the impossible, since God Himself cannot 
break His own laws. A child would be a long 
time learning to walk if kept constantly in its 
cradle and talked to about equilibrium and the 
centre of gravity. If a person had never seen or 
tasted an orange, he might be told of its globular 
shape, its deep yellow tint, and that it belonged to 
the genus ckrus, that the tree upon which it grew 
was permanently clothed with a glossy green foliage, 
but the information would convey a far less per¬ 
fect idea than could be gained in a moment had 
he been taken to an orange grove and personally 
seen and tasted the fruit. Similarly, only the prac¬ 
tise of prayer can bring appreciation of its value and 


22 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


efficacy. To the soul which feels no relation of kin¬ 
ship to its Father, prayer must remain an idle specu¬ 
lation, a mental phenomenon. 

Desire, unaccompanied with effort or work, is a 
foolish waste of mental energy. With earnest 
desire comes the exhilarating aspiration to work, 
and as a result of work-prayer many a barren waste 
has been converted into a garden, the earth has 
been subjugated and transformed, and therefore 
becomes a better abode for man. Such efficient 
desires are doing more to have “Thy kingdom come 
and Thy will be done ” than all the verbal prayers 
which can ever be offered. “I have planted, Apollos 
watered; but God gave the increase,” says Paul. 
The importance of watering and planting is not to 
be subordinated to God’s constant willingness to 
give the increase. Humanity must never neglect 
its important part of the programme as co-worker 
with God. Marvellous will be the result of desire 
for things which are right and true when supple¬ 
mented with earnest, unselfish effort. 

For example, if some member of the family is ill, 


DESIRE AND WORK. 


23 


or suffering with some acute physical malady, aid is 
quickly sought. The best remedial agencies are 
applied, and if efficacious, health is soon restored. 
Disease is undesirable, and therefore every precau¬ 
tion against its recurrence will be taken. Perhaps 
on the physical plane, there are adjacent low lands 
generating a foul atmosphere, which need draining. 
If so, it is folly to join issue with any ultra science (?), 
however popular and prevalent its teachings, and 
declare that no swamp exists. Impurities may have 
found a channel of access to the well. If sensible, 
work is at once begun. This work-prayer will be 
followed with beneficent results. Health thus 
gained is retained, as well as maintained for the rest 
of the family. If there were no hygienic laws, right 
thought would speedily create them, and enforce a 
pure environment. It is said that a noted divine, 
upon hearing doleful comments on the mysterious 
dispensation of Providence in removing a beautiful 
little child from rosy, healthful life, by a sudden attack 
of diphtheria, exclaimed gruffly: “Dispensation of 
Providence indeed ! More likely, rotten potatoes in 
the cellar ” ! 


24 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


How frequently man yields to fits of impatience, 
which plunge the thought-life into unnumbered per¬ 
plexities, depressing sorrow, and unavailing self- 
reproach ! As a legitimate consequence, a desire for 
an emancipation from this bondage is born in every 
aspiring soul. How can strength to overcome this 
weakness be obtained ? It is useless to attempt 
gaining the requisite power except by spiritual exer¬ 
cise, work and practice. If prayer for release is 
intelligently offered to the Supreme Ruler of the 
Universe, the answer should be expected in the 
presentation of just those conditions which most 
thoroughly try the faculties of patience. Victory 
can come only through the soul’s recognition of the 
beauty and supremacy of patience over its weaker, 
tantalizing enemy, impatience. Never strive to 
equalize impulsiveness and passivity. Attempt it, 
and the regal importance of the mind will be dis¬ 
crowned and find a place in the dust, under the feet 
of all other powers. Passions must be subjugated to 
the control of the divinely-illuminated will. 

Hobart Berrian, who said “The great mission of 


DESIRE AND WORK . 


25 

life is to prepare for death,” would have rendered 
better service to his fellows had he forcibly reminded 
them that the great mission of life is to live. Work- 
prayer, wisely directed, in the final analysis will 
always prove to be constructive, while idleness not 
only never builds, but disintegrates. Many, too 
many adherents of creeds are wasting their precious 
opportunities in singing : 

“ Oh for the pearly gates of heaven, 

Oh for the golden floor,” 

who would be serving their generation much better, 
would be adding more happiness to this sphere of 
time, as well as paving the streets of eternity with 
glad fruition, if they would work to establish more 
pearly gates through which love could find ingress to 
the hearts of men, and make straight and smooth the 
floors of life now pressed by the feet of the weary 
and heavy-laden ones of earth. 

“ The way to bliss lies not on beds of down, 

And he that has no cross, deserves no crown.” 

Many there are who are filled with desire and yet 
never accomplish anything. Yet until some work is 


26 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


begun in earnest, an unconscious longing and unrest 
possesses the soul. From such aimless lives is often 
derived a sinecure for the physician, where no other 
illness can be found, save that which breathes in the 
stagnant pools of idleness. If the importance of his 
trust were considered, the physician’s only prescrip¬ 
tion for such cases would be : — 

Rx. 

Honest industry . . Eight hours. 

Healthful recreation “ “ 

Sleep. “ “ 

Sig. 

To be taken daily. 

This prescription should be written in plain English, 
and accompanied by the wholesome advice to always 
keep the prescription filled. Follow these directions, 
and the road of life will lead to constant happiness. 
Follow selfish idleness and, like the vanquished 
Corsican, the journey of temporal existence will be a 
melancholy march to some spiritual St. Helena. 

A contemplation of the ruins of the Acropolis and 
the Parthenon finds some consolation in the knowl¬ 
edge that the missiles of valiant warfare helped their 



DESIRE AND WORK. 


27 


destruction, and that all which remains of these once 
magnificent structures is not the product of neglect 
and the crumbling hand of time. At best these ruins 
present melancholy aspects. Yet numberless tour¬ 
ists yearly travel thousands of miles to visit and pon¬ 
der over these dismantled temples of former beauty 
and grandeur. Nearer at hand may perchance be 
seen more stupendous and pitiable ruins of that 
temple which should be kept in hospitable order for 
the abiding place of the living God. 

The Divine Magnet which would draw all mankind 
nearer and nearer unto Itself has imparted to every 
soul the impulse of a pure and noble desire, as an 
efficient handmaiden of the law of progression. It is 
the key to growth. Desire, enriched with earnest, 
wisely-directed effort, will assuredly gain abundant 
entrance to the Kingdom of Heaven. 


28 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


CHAPTER IV. 


WISDOM AND PURPOSE. 


LL work becomes wearisome and profitless, save 



1 v that which is wisely directed. However 
important desire, work and prayer may appear, life’s 
purposes must not be subordinate considerations. 
The value of results, in association with all efforts, 
will largely depend upon the directing wisdom. 
Intelligent mental energy must inspire all muscular 
effort. Only a few years ago, fifty men were neces¬ 
sary to raise the frame of an ordinary house, a work 
which six men, with modern appliances, can now more 
easily perform. 

There are two classes of people who rarely meet 
with any marked degree of success. One class, 
represented by a large number of followers, has no 
well-defined purpose in life; the second, while 
numerically much smaller, and whose purposes are 
definite enough, although unwisely adjusted to ensure 


WISDOM AND PURPOSE. 


2 9 


the best and most profitable results, add but little 
more than the first class to the common weal of 
humanity It is a pleasure and encouragement to 
recall a third division of society, in which are found 
people of noble aspirations, whose purposes and 
actions are directed toward the pathway upon which 
wisdom sheds her beneficent light. 

It is not enough to have definite purposes; they 
must be wisely directed. Although important, only 
as steps to much higher considerations, there are 
purposes that obtain which, to be perfected, require 
a great waste of nervous energy, bringing the devotee 
at last to realize the vanity of all earthly standards as 
a result of a purposeless kind of living, which ends 
only when despair is buried in the grave of 
forgetfulness. 

Certain proclivities discovered in mankind are 
frequently attributed to the law of ancestral heredity. 
Let it ever be borne in mind that true inheritance is 
of divine origin, and a too-sweeping denunciation of 
any condition which obtains is to cast a reflection 
upon the wisdom of the Almighty, and reveals human 


cubes And spheres. 


30 

short-sightedness. The inner consciousness is as 
much the birthright of heredity as certain outward 
and wrongly called natural propensities. The lazy, 
purposeless, drifting life is the saddest and hardest 
to live. The trend of such a life may be an inherited 
tendency on the mortal plane, but with this trans¬ 
mitted proclivity is the inheritance of a divine spirit 
of purpose, whose lash is daily felt around the lazy, 
listless members of inactivity. The importance of 
yielding to these higher mandates cannot be too 
strongly urged. The scourge of activity will ever be 
applied to the back of inertia until a willing obedi¬ 
ence is rendered and the healing elixir of “ Well 
done, good and faithful servant,” is nobly won. 

Nature is very economical and will not tolerate 
the existence of any waste or useless material. 
Nature abhors an angle, and she will rub and rack, 
push and polish every member of her family until 
each is brought into a spherical beauty, whereby a 
perfect adjustment to the machinery of the universe 
is possible. The untamed wilderness by which the 
primogenital man was surrounded, necessitated his 


WISDOM AND PURPOSE. 31 

bestowing undivided attention upon material affairs. 
The world is a riper one now, and less attention in 
this direction is required. The tendency to dig and 
to delve, to harvest and to hoard is a recognizable 
taint of ancestral characteristics, frequently over 
indulged. To many, God’s face is reflected only as 
stamped upon the almighty dollar; with others, He 
lives solely in the acquisition of purely intellectual 
knowledge or in the attainment of some selfish ideal; 
while with some, the flitting butterfly of society is 
deified. The physical plane is not yet outgrown, 
the surface of the earth is still inhabited, super¬ 
ficialities absorb human attention, while the spirit 
shrivels and starves for the sustenance it craves. 
Is this a wise direction of life’s purpose ? 

Not a small proportion of humanity finds a defi¬ 
niteness of purpose in gratifying an ambition for 
wealth or position of power, for a leadership in 
society, and in many other trivial directions, all 
these desires being far beneath the dignity of an 
emancipated soul. The demands of modern society, 
of the exclusive “400,” appear to the novice little 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


32 

less than cruel. False custom is a monstrous and 
pitiless dictator of all who live under its dominion. 
Yet fidelityto the demands of this custom claims the 
devotion of many of God’s children as the highest 
purpose of life. Follow the lady of fashion for a 
single day, as various efforts are operative for eras¬ 
ing the pencilings of time. How pitiful the record 
of the hours devoted to the toilet, how abject a slave 
to the demands of the flesh is this victim of society t 
The daily massage, the steaming of the face, rubbing 
in of unguents and the rubbing off of the same, 
effacing of incipient wrinkles, often by the painful 
process of scraping and cupping, the long, pains¬ 
taking work of the manicure and the pedicure, the 
artistic labor of the hairdresser, all this wearisome 
ordeal is nothing short of work, and that a definite 
purpose prompts it, no one will deny; but what of the 
wisdom of the purpose? 

The man of poverty, in his lonely hut, frequently 
derives consolation from the scriptural “needle’s 
eye” parable, which may prevent the man of the 
castle, or lessen his chances of enjoying the occu- 


WISDOM AND PURPOSE. 


33 


pancy of a mansion in the great Beyond. The 
copartnership of weal and woe is found in every 
manifestation of life. Yet the enjoyment of heaven, 
here or hereafter, can never be absolutely complete 
for one until it has been won for all. So long as 
the present definition of prosperity obtains, the 
purpose of life will measurably fail to employ means 
destined to lead to real success. It may be, and 
doubtless is true that higher and nobler purposes 
sway humanity to-day than have existed heretofore. 
This fact, however, is not sufficient and should not 
obliterate the consciousness of duty in elevating 
human aims to a still higher standard. An umbrella 
may protect from the rain, but a well-constructed 
house will perform the duties of that office, much 
better. God has set up no special barriers in his 
kingdom against the rich, neither has he thrown 
wide open all gates of ingress to the poor. 

With an unfaltering eye, let present needs be 
met. One earnest gaze in the right direction often 
effects a change in the whole life. It is most essen¬ 
tial that all minds, from each extreme of life’s swing- 


34 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


ing pendulum, pause to look within and honestly 
consider and meditate on the trend of present living. 
Is it the purpose of the politician, upon his election 
to an office of trust, to become the true statesman, 
to keep constantly in view the deepest and best 
interests of his constituents, or is it his design to 
gain the office for self-emolument and power, at the 
sacrifice of confidence reposed in him by those to 
whom he owes his position ? Is the true minister of 
the gospel, he in whom the sacred charge of making 
the world better is especially committed, conscien¬ 
tiously performing the duties of his office, or is he to 
be found giving freedom of rein to ambition’s prompt¬ 
ings, and for the sake of position catering to the 
demands of “ itching ears ” ? Is he a leader of the 
people, or is he led by them ? 

Is the physician true to the highest duties of his 
office ? Is it his constant care to so teach others 
the laws of health and of right thought that no 
recognition of disease would be necessary, or does 
his cruel, illegitimate and barbaric practice of vivi¬ 
section encourage in him a desire for unnecessary 


WISDOM AND PURPOSE. 


35 


surgical operations, or for professional experiments, 
until the patient is left a mere wreck of a human 
being, the remnant of a body almost too slight for 
purposes of identification? Is he endeavoring to 
throw open to the world every avenue of health ? Is 
he sinking self-considerations in humane effort to 
elevate his own calling by destroying all possibility 
of disease, or is he straining every nerve to foister 
upon the people such unjust laws as will make of his 
profession a sinecure, and an eternal birthright, by 
virtue of which all spiritual illumination in this con¬ 
nection, all divinely prepared and appointed healing 
shall be relegated to oblivion ? 

Are religionists really doing to others as they 
would that others should do unto them, or are the 
habiliments of religion being used for well defined 
and yet unjust purposes? Is the monopolist an 
unselfish man ? Is it his purpose to control commer¬ 
cial enterprises for the benefit of the masses? Is it 
the object of fashionable society to perfect a broader 
culture, or is its highest purpose to intrench itself 
within the parapets of seclusiveness ? Is the sanctity 



36 CUBES AND SPHERES. 

of the marriage institution the purpose of marriage, 
or is it too often a mere commercial enterprise ? 
Are the unfortunate, the poor and needy, receiving 
due and just consideration from wealth ? Is the 
laborer toiling simply for his pay, measuring every 
effort by the dollar it brings, or is his work one of 
love and duty ? Is each worker on every plane try¬ 
ing to bring more happiness to the world than is now 
found therein ? What is the purpose which prompts 
the activities of life? “Wisdom is more precious 
than rubies, and all things that can be desired are not 
to be compared unto her.” With all thy getting, oh 
children of earth, get understanding! 


THOUGHT : 


37 


CHAPTER V. 


THOUGHT. 


“ Our thoughts are odors, and we cannot seal them 
So close with actions, but they will creep out; 

And delicately-fashioned souls will feel them, 

And know them sweet, or vile, beyond a doubt.” 

HOUGHT is the reservoir from which certain pur- 



1 poses flow, while others emanate from feeling, 
from deeper wells of intuitive consciousness, and for 
these, thought is the actor and agent of expression. 
But a true and wise purpose is often diverted from 
its achievement by adverse, or trivial thought- 
currents, with which connection is inadvertently 
made. Thought is not purely automatic. It is 
excited by everything seen, and the character of the 
thing observed will determine the nature of the 
thought. It is therefore desirable to choose an 
environment which is harmonious, beautiful and 
wholesome, and to tolerate, only when prevention is 


38 CUBES AND SPHERES. 

impossible, the things which are unclean, angular 
and repulsive. 

It is affirmed that thoughts are things. The 
assertion is one that is open to controversy. But 
that all things in material expression are the product 
of thought, none will logically deny; and that such 
expressions may undergo radical changes as a result 
of thought, is doubtless true. Thoughts are things 
to one who comprehends their reality; they are not 
things to any one else. Human intellect reasons 
from the abstract to the concrete. In the world of 
spirit, the concrete is the reality. There, thoughts 
indeed are things. They have only recently come to 
be so considered among men, as humanity grows 
nearer its spiritual self-hood, and therefore gains 
recognition of the true and the real. To many 
thinkers, thoughts remain forces rather than things, 
and this may be a wiser, universal designation in the 
present development of the race. 

That crowning glory of our nation — the Con¬ 
gressional Library at Washington — resplendent in 
the beauty of its symmetrical architecture, rich and 


THOUGHT : 


39 


ornate in every detail from basement to dome, its 
wealth of decoration, its convenience and adapta¬ 
bility to the purpose for which it was designed, 
stands as a noble monument of the materialization 
of artistic thought. 

Ah, what a piece of work is man ! How like a 
god in his possibilities, his skill, his marvellous 
achievements ! And thought is the lever with which 
he lifts the world to his ideal of beauty and service. 

And thought ever enriches the thinker. By the 
beautiful law of reciprocity, thought correspondingly 
effects for weal or woe the life of every thinker, 
making his character more angular or spherical as 
his mental vibrations are crude or refined. His 
thought-life has created the sciences of phrenology, 
physiognomy and palmistry, now held in such high 
esteem, which in their turn hold a life record as 
accurate as the book of recording angel. 

All truth is important, but the relative value of 
different phases of truth are determined by their use 
in application. “ Know thyself,” for by such knowl¬ 
edge all other selves are in greater degree understood. 


4 o 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


The science of physiognomy is deserving of more 
attention than at present it receives. A thorough 
knowledge of this science converts the furrows and 
pencilings of time seen upon the face into a veritable 
soul biography. It is not desirable for an elderly 
face to be without wrinkles. Note the grand coun¬ 
tenances of Gladstone, of Longfellow, or of Wendell 
Phillips, so deeply furrowed, not with the lines of worry 
and care, but chiselled by the noble thought which 
has been theirs. Be riot ashamed of wrinkles, unless 
they are of the wrong kind. Strong thought leaves 
an indelible impress, in loving characters, of the 
thinker’s character. All minds are architects of 
character, and thought-activity is daily constructing a 
temple for the indwelling of the spirit. Then let all 
thought-life be directed and focused upon that which 
is good. “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever 
things are honest, whatsoever things are just, what¬ 
soever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, 
whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any 
virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these 
things.” 


THOUGHT. 


41 


The law of reflex action is inexorable, and thinking 
of that which is good, recognizing only the good in 
everybody and everything will find correspondence 
with good, will create it in the heart of the thinker, 
while, baleful thoughts, through the same law, will 
cancel every obligation with coin from its own spuri¬ 
ous mint. The body is unquestionably moulded by 
thought. An erect pose of the body, an open, frank 
expression of the countenance, and the honest eye 
reveals habits of righteous thinking, as also does dis¬ 
tortion, ugliness, and the shifting glance disclose the 
consequence of evil thought. 

Longevity of physical life, good health, as well as 
refined and classical features, owe their origin to 
proper thought. Through the right kind of thinking 
an irregular face may become an object of universal 
admiration, beautiful in every expression. The best 
lotion for the complexion is pure thoughts, constantly 
expressed. Character can be determined by a per¬ 
son’s gait, and is often most perfectly portrayed 
in the laugh. When in that most sacred place, the 
dining-room, the character of the conversation, which 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


42 

is but an outward expression of thought, cannot be 
too carefully guarded. No angry thought should 
ever enter here, whether unuttered, or expressed. 
Not only is material food here consumed, but thought 
chemicals inhere in all food chemicals, and through 
the process of digestion and assimilation compose 
the chemistry of the body. 

A healthy body is a natural companion of a lofty 
spirit. None will deny that the spirit of man acts 
upon the body, and it is clearly true that that which 
can be acted upon is in turn capable of reacting. 
Let every particle of food be well seasoned with jolly, 
happy laughter, and thoroughly mixed with the best 
and purest thoughts. Think strength, not weakness ; 
growth, not decay; fortune, not misfortune. Con¬ 
template health, beauty and symmetry, not disease, 
ugliness and angularity, for “ as a man thinketh in 
his heart, so is he.” 

Think not of crime nor of criminals. It is a 
public disgrace that the secular press finds, or thinks 
it finds, it necessary to publish, with such vivid, 
harrowing descriptions, the appalling wickedness of 


THOUGHT. 


43 


the day. They thus send forth a poisonous influence 
into the thought-world whose extent none can com¬ 
pute. Capital punishment is only legalized murder, 
and every time a criminal is executed the thought- 
world is deluged with newspaper descriptions of the 
event, thereby gratifying a morbid and polluted 
taste. By ceasing to engage in the business of 
murder itself, the State would make its own thought- 
world purer, and inspire thoughts of kindness and 
not revenge, of reformation and not punishment. 
The murderer is the product of cramped and unholy 
thought, and the gallows is but a ghastly relic of 
barbaric thinking. The cause, of which the mur¬ 
derer is an effect, was the thought of ignorance, the 
world’s chief sin. Change the nature of the thought, 
and you remove the cause, and as a logical conse¬ 
quence the murderer emerges from his barbaric, 
uncivilized condition and begins to thread the 
devious path of progress. 

Thought is a builder of ladders, upon the rungs of 
which we ascend to the heights of divine realization 
or descend to degradation, darkness and despair. 




44 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


The true end of living is to be happy and to make 
others happy. Pleasure should not be confounded 
with happiness or remain the goal of one’s ambition, 
for simple pleasure is often associated with selfish 
gratification and frequently encourages only the 
baser senses. Pleasure may be enjoyed without 
gaining happiness, but when happiness is secured, 
pleasure is constant. 

In order to achieve all possible happiness, perfect 
confidence in the future, the future of this world as 
well as the next, must be fully maintained. Perfect 
confidence in the future is always conducive to 
passivity and serenity in the present. Anticipated 
happiness reflects its light all along the pathway to 
realization. Confidence in the future makes such 
anticipation possible. The thought of the future 
should be one continual serene hope, since only 
Omnipotent Good reigns. 


SELE-ASSER TION. 


45 


CHAPTER VI. 


SELF-ASSERTION. 



O assert one’s self may be prolific of more or less 


x friction, nevertheless, when this proves true, it 
only demonstrates that there still remain some angu¬ 
larities of character to be softened and transformed 
through such friction. Self-assertion is often defined 
as being nothing more than blind self-conceit, or an 
indiscriminate impulse. Even were this the highest 
conception of self-dominance, it is still best to assert 
the same. The experience thus gained will doubtless 
be unpleasant, but the result of the experience will 
develop a calm judgment and a superior consciousness 
of moral faculties. The process will prove the 
cleansing fire of the gold cast in the furnace. Truth 
is often impotent, good lacks sovereign power, and 
villany therefore triumphs, from the want of self- 
reliance and self-consciousness. When self-assertion 
is maintained, its possessor is bound to suffer at first, 


46 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


but will finally be freed from the undesirable com¬ 
panionship of conceit, and gain the fellowship of a 
true, strong and beautiful self-reliance. The effer¬ 
vescence and perturbation of vanity will yield to 
consistency and a democracy of interest in all 
mankind. 

It is not incompatible with modesty for a person 
to feel that he is, in certain ways, superior to others, 
that for a certain mission peculiar gifts have been 
vouchsafed him. “ Is it best to do good by stealth, 
and blush to find it shame ” ? Untamed animalism 
is bold conceit, a turbid stream. Spirituality is the 
clear-flowing river of calm, serene repose, in the con¬ 
sciousness of a true and higher self-hood. The lover 
of truth is not the master of the liar, but truth is the 
master of all falsity and of that vanity which tempo¬ 
rarily bestows success upon its servants, but is a 
false height, from which recession is necessary to 
gain a true spiritual elevation. 

A liberal seasoning of self-reliance is frankly 
admitted to be of incalculable value to the leader in 
public affairs. If this be true, then this quality more 


SELE-ASSER TION. 


47 


developed in the man of private life would release 
him from the frequently unjust dominion of the 
former. Self-confidence has been suppressed by 
many means until, as a result, some natures of a 
morbid humility consider themselves to be worthless, 
and have surrendered to despair. The law of the 
State apprehends the morally depraved, keeps them 
long enough to stifle aspiration and self-reliance, 
subjects them to an association which breeds more 
depravity, and then releases its victim to vitiate the 
channels of public thought. 

When will the State be governed by laws patterned 
more closely after the divine law of Nature ? Drastic 
treatment should have no other view, or object, than 
reformation. It is pre-eminently the duty of all who 
are emancipated from the thraldom of depraved incli¬ 
nations to educate the unfortunate victim of untoward 
circumstances and generate within him the idea that 
he is one of God’s children, that he has a divine self¬ 
hood to unfold and cultivate. By such a process 
those lives already good are made better; by 
neglecting this obligation, and seeking to reform by 
punishment, the desired end is not attained. 


4 8 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


There can be found no department of life where 
self-assertion will not prove of much benefit. It 
might be argued that such advantage depends upon 
what kind of a self-hood is to be asserted. There is 
only one true self-hood which is one with the Supreme 
Self, “the only Self of all creatures.” In the final 
analysis it will be found that the true self of every one 
is that priceless gem of God-hood-ness which through 
Nature’s process and divine intention is destined to 
an immortality, glorious and perfect as the pristine 
Eternal Life. If any soul, because of a limited aspira¬ 
tion, is environed by a clutter-pile which is disagree¬ 
able to the more sensitive observer, it is plainly the 
duty of the more enlightened nature to help the 
struggling one to clear away the rubbish of unright¬ 
eous thought and puerile living, thereby giving the 
soul a chance to unfold and progress. Lack of 
charity toward the faults of others portrays a fault in 
ourselves. The real self often is recognized, only 
after repeated triumphs over the baser and lower 
attachments which, like barnacles, have become 
fastened upon the ego. 


SELF-ASSER T/ON. 


49. 


It is difficult, if not impossible, to give proper 
importance to our regal powers, until the true rela¬ 
tion of self to God is clearly recognized. The spirit 
of man is the same in quality as the Spirit of God. 
Man is not infinite, because his spirit is not infinite 
in quantity, but every man is a spirit, and in that spirit 
abideth the “ I Am ” of all causation. A recogni¬ 
tion of this truth is the solvent of all doubts and 
fears, and leads to a serene confidence in an inner 
ability to cope with all the vicissitudes of life. A 
possession of this recognition at once destroys all 
disease, since Divinity can only express immaculate 
health, makes of, every trial a stepping-stone to 
happiness, annuls the idea of death as a calamity, and 
relates it to our thought as an orderly arranged and 
desirable experience in life. 

A recognition of this spiritual power of self-hood 
perfects a dominancy which enables all to look upon 
the catalogue of evil as a volume filled only with 
unrealities. The assertion of true self-hood unfolds 
a thorough and faithful consideration of the problems 
of life, by gaining at-one-ment with the Infinite 




go CUBES AND SPHERES. 

design. It trusts no longer, without question, the 
teachings and conclusions of others. Too long has 
it been taught, and confidently accepted, that man is 
totally depraved and that he needs to be regenerated. 

It is not necessary to consider the value of such 
teachings as have obtained in the past, for with our 
present enlightenment we know that every soul is 
born of God, and is as pure as God himself is pure. 
The baser senses of mankind are not regenerated and 
utilized as vehicles of expression on a higher plane of 
sense perception; they are outgrown and left 
behind, as the soul climbs upward to grasp and wield 
more spiritual faculties and powers. Evolution pro¬ 
claims this a truth, and nineteenth-century-common- 
sense lends thereto its unqualified endorsement. 
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that 
which is born of the spirit is spirit.” 

There would be more wisdom in clothing a monitor 
with pewter armor, than a soul with the sensualities 
of the fleshly senses. “Ye must be born again,” 
day by day, yea, the soul must daily gain a new 
birth in a better understanding of its own powers. 


SELF-ASSERTION. 5 1 

The true self, with its importance asserted, will be 
led into the rightful province of activity, the realm of 
spirit, the only reality, the supreme power. Doubt¬ 
less the reason for teaching the total depravity of 
man, in the past, was due to the fact that the teacher 
had failed to gain recognition of the real self, being 
blinded to it by external manifestations of undevel¬ 
oped and primal states. 

“ Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but 
that which is natural; and afterward that which is 
spiritual.” “ There is therefore now no condemna¬ 
tion to them * * * who walk not after the flesh but 
after the spirit.” Whatever may be the circum¬ 
stances and conditions which obtain in the world of 
excarnate spirits, here in this sphere different states 
of consciousness are observed in life’s multitudinous 
expressions. The present hour finds progressive 
souls in an attitude of conscious perception, entirely 
different from that of yesterday. A man is master 
of mathematics to-day, who only a few years ago was 
ignorant of the science. Does his former ignorance 
bear any relation to his present knowledge ? Did he 






52 CUBES AND SPHERES. 

convert his former ignorance of the science into his 
present attainments ? On the contrary, he destroyed 
ignorance and overcame it by asserting his divine 
right to knowledge. The man who has grown into a 
spiritual understanding of spiritual things, does not 
look upon his glorious acquisition as being related to 
his former materiality, but as being quite foreign to 
it. His spiritual attitude is the result of growth in 
consciousness of his real self-hood and the assertion 
of his divine birthright. 

Each soul, independent of his environments, is the 
equal of any other soul. If those possessed of more 
favorable light and knowledge are really desirous of 
beholding a society that is strong and pure, expres¬ 
sive of a large manhood and womanhood, they will 
labor for the development of purity and the unfold- 
ment of the divine possibilities to be found in 
every individual. 

Present methods of suppressing vice often prove 
to be but incubators for the production of its own 
legitimate offspring. The life which finds it impos¬ 
sible to assert itself either from lack of disposition or 


SELF-ASSER T/ON . 


53 


from hindrance from extraneous circumstances, pos¬ 
sesses a legitimate claim to help from those who 
wield a greater power. The assertion of true self¬ 
hood is but an expression of the God within. The 
power to accomplish is only limited by a wisdom of 
how to perform. Wisdom is only gained through 
experience. An intelligent experience is only possi¬ 
ble by and through assertion of the higher self, which 
leads at length to that goal of all striving— selfless¬ 
ness — the polar opposite of human selfishness, too 
often the highest expression of personal dominance. 
But the selfish man is learning his strength, building 
up his individuality. Despise him not. The 
ladder by which he climbs to spiritual heights must 
rest upon materiality. We “ rise on the stepping- 
stones of our dead selves ” to conscious realization 
of the Supreme Self. 


54 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


CHAPTER VII. 


PERCEPTION AND REFLECTION. 

HROUGH timely reflection many of the rough 



1 and angular features of external life are 
avoided, and natural tendencies are rounded and 
modified. As soon as the grand possibilities of 
life are conceived, habits of meditation and reflection 
should be formed, that only the wisest and best 
paths be pursued. Life is too often a careless, 
aimless drifting, uninspired by any masterful pur¬ 
pose. A careful phrenological examination of a 
large number of persons would reveal the fact that 
the reflective faculties are sadly deficient. The 
cause of this seems easily traceable to the lack of 
activity in this department of thought. 

The almost savage encounter for material gain in 
the warfare of the world has sharpened and intensi¬ 
fied the perceptive faculties upon the external 
plane. Pre-natal tendencies have stamped every 


PERCEPTION AND REFLECTION. 55 

child of earth with a natural endowment in this 
direction. The rigorous hardships of primal civili¬ 
zation, the penury, want and misery which ob¬ 
tained, directed the reasoning faculties of genera¬ 
tions then unborn into the channel of material 
activity. This condition now exists, and is the 
legitimate sequence to a conspiring cause found in 
primal states. The constant exercise of this faculty 
of perception upon the lower plane has prepared it 
for a keener appreciation of the higher spiritual 
life, if its activity can thus be conserved. 

Some of the failures of life are doubtless due to a 
lack of power to perceive opportunities, but more are 
due to a lack of proper reflection which leads to a 
mature judgment of how to properly appropriate 
such opportunities. Mankind is endowed with many 
faculties which are practically dormant, and in some 
instances the highest and best powers are found in 
a very inactive condition. In an attempt to perform 
the duties of life well, familiarity with all the imple¬ 
ments of work is an absolute necessity. 

However keen and active perception may become, 


5 6 CUBES AND SPHERES. 

the cultivation of the reflective faculties must greatly 
enhance its value. It is not advisable to make a 
specialty of developing one faculty to the neglect of 
another, notwithstanding this is a most common 
method of procedure. The framework of human 
estates will be found, as a result, to be out of 
proportion, deficient in architectural beauty and 
symmetry. 

To properly cultivate and train every faculty and 
develop each upon a plane of perfect unison with 
every other is the pattern set by the great Architect 
of the Universe. Such a process produces not the 
cubical, angular, one-sided being, but the man of 
spherical harmony. 

Everybody is cognizant of ever-recurring phe¬ 
nomena in nature, but their significance is only 
appreciated by the thoughtful observer. The pres¬ 
entation of a phenomenon is an invitation from God, 
to all of His children, to investigate it, to reflect 
upon it, and to become familiar with the truth which 
it reveals. The ways of God may have seemed 
/‘past finding out,” but if this be true, it has not 


PERCEPTION AND REFLECTION. 


57 


been due to His unwillingness to reveal Himself to 
the limit of human receptivity, but to the stupidity 
and ignorance of His children. Humanity must 
learn its own lessons. No one can accept a truth for 
another. The constant presentation of phenomena 
is a universal invitation from the Schoolmaster of all 
mankind to comprehend His laws. God has ever 
revealed Himself, and is constantly unfolding more 
and more of Truth to all earnest students. If God’s 
laws are to be known, they are to be studied, and 
habits of deep reflection will eventually reveal the 
purposes of all phenomena. 

Who has not seen an untrained team in its attempt 
to draw a heavy load ? The effort is always spas¬ 
modic and jerky, while the draught horses move the 
same load with apparent ease and composure. Per¬ 
ception, without reflection, is a harness in which 
mankind yanks and twists and wastes his vital energy 
in an effort to move the burdens of life, while reflec¬ 
tion designs and solves all problems of difficulty, 
converts every load into a stepping-stone on which 
to mount higher, and transforms discouragement into 


5 8 CUBES AND SPHERES. 

a never-failing resource of courage and conscious 
power. 

Reflection leads to the goal of contentment; not 
to a satisfaction necessarily with present attainments, 
but to a consciousness of an inherent ability to make 
real the idealities of life. By the use of this faculty, 
interior potentialities are realized. One should 
always be able to find self a delightful companion, 
thus escaping that too common frailty of desiring to 
“ kill time,” because of ennui and unrest. Repose, 
which is the key to spiritual power, the greatest need 
to-day of the race or the individual, can only be 
gained through self-poise and persistent habits of 
calm, introspective reflection. 

Repose is sure to make of self a delightful friend, 
who will always prove entertaining and instructive, 
filling up the time so profitably that every moment is 
considered of precious worth. Reflection is the open 
sesame to companionship, not only with self, but with 
all people and things. It attracts friends from all 
forms of life. It makes of the past a delightful 
reminiscence, and of future experiences, pleasant 


PERCEPTION AND REFLECTION. 


59 


anticipations. It creates an ideal world where beauty 
reigns supreme, where color is beheld unceasingly 
waving her palms of splendor, where the rattling 
thunder, the raindrops upon the roof, the softly fall¬ 
ing crystals of snow, are all chords of a celestial 
chorus ; while laughter and tears, shadows and sun¬ 
shine are revealed in this light, as an orderly language 
of Nature. 

Whether man considers himself as a member of a 
homogeneous or hetrogeneous community, he is a part 
of society, and is therefore a scion, dependent for his 
growth upon the fructification of the whole tree. 
Success in life depends largely upon the harmonious 
adjustment of one member of society to all other 
members. Repose is not compatible with angry 
perturbations. Anger never generates amiability. 
If success on any plane is desired, affability to others 
must be cultivated. Study the art of repose, for 
repose develops harmony, and good nature is an 
indispensable agency to success. Repose is likewise 
the helpmate in obtaining'material advantages, but 
success means far more than mere money-getting, 


6o 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


yet upon whatever path to prosperity man yields 
himself as devotee, the attitude of self-contained 
repose will be found of incalculable value. 

However important or far-reaching become the 
active relations of one’s life, they will be found to be 
the result of tact, push and principle, breathed into 
each little act of life’s opportunities. The habit of 
reflecting carefully is gained just as any other habit 
is made ; namely, by small beginnings. As a process 
of training in this school, it will be found most profit¬ 
able to carefully reflect before giving answer to 
even the most trivial questions. If a question is 
worthy of an answer, the questioner can afford to 
wait for a reply resultant upon mature reflection. If 
care is given to the small considerations of life, the 
larger and more important affairs will certainly not 
be neglected, but receive that character of thought 
which mature judgment alone can give. 

The school-boy’s water-wheel which he has con¬ 
structed out of a cross stick, into which he has 
inserted a few paddles, is to him just as important as 
the giant wheel which is employed to propel the 


PERCEPTION AND REFLECTION 6 j 

machinery of a great factory. Observe that little 
boy as he stands there by the side of his production, 
with his pantaloons rolled up to his not over-clean 
knees, watching his water-wheel go spinning around 
under the gentle touch of the silvery cascade, already, 
by his small experiment, cultivating his reflective 
faculties. Give that little fellow a chance, and to the 
car of progress he will harness new steeds of power, 
which will drive the world onward at a diviner speed. 
That boy standing in the playground, delivering a 
harangue to his fellows, may be making an important 
preparation for a power in oratory which, in subse¬ 
quent life, shall stir the waiting souls of humanity to 
a comprehension of higher revealments of truth. 

There can be no duty of life too menial to receive 
the stamp of God’s approval. Instead of disturbing 
the boy and seeking to thwart his ambition, because 
he is engaged in what seems an affair of trivial 
importance, encouragement should be given him to 
perform well the little duties of his immature experi¬ 
ence. An intelligent observation and cultivation of 
latent powers, or tendencies, will yield to the next 
generation a better manhood and womanhood. 


62 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


Reflection will give power of discrimination and 
save the world from many a blunder. Reflection 
will help every man to rightly measure his own abil¬ 
ity, and thereby save him from much waste of energy 
devoted to departments of life’s activity to which he 
is improperly adjusted. Many farms are but a barren 
wilderness to-day, because of so many bad interpreters 
of Blackstone, so many ranting preachers, so many 
unsuccessful physicians, who in their chosen profes¬ 
sions have wasted their time and energy to the 
neglect of the deserted farm. On the other hand, 
many a wilderness has been made to “ bloom and 
blossom as the rose,” as the result of the uncongenial 
toil and sweat of the man who would have been an 

r 

ornament to the bar, to the pulpit, or any other pro¬ 
fession. Proper adjustment of relations brings a 
harmony to life. Reflection will lead to the proper 
correspondence of all relations, will annul personal 
ambition, and prepare each soul now expressing its 
purpose on earth, to fill just the niche for which it 
was intended, thus gaining the conquest and uplift- 
ment that it craves. 


SERVICE. 


63 


f 


CHAPTER VIII. 


SERVICE. 

“And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be 

your servant.” 


'T'HERE can be but one basic evolutionary law ; 
* there is but one road that leads to soul free¬ 
dom. It would be an impossible task t© direct any 
conduct toward the amelioration of the human 
family without each self-hood becoming a co-partner 
in its benefits. The race rises, or falls, as a unit. 

To do for others as you would be done by means 
far more than the performance of certain activities 
of life. It comprehends all mental and spiritual 

relatioifs to your fellowmen. Bestowing charity 

% 

where it is needed is certainly commendable, but the 
thought which accompanies the gift should be the 
richest gift of all. To give, simply to be freed from 
some troublesotrfe mendicant, may be but a paltry 
price paid for relief from an annoyance. The gift 


6 4 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


may answer certain demands of the unfortunate, but 
the thought is poison, and no one is nearer to its 
infectious potency than he who generates it. 

It is possible for a most selfish individual to pose 
as the embodiment of generosity and unselfishness. 
The donor of magnificent gifts is not always a 
philanthropist. There has lived many a benefactor 
with a soul stirred to deeds of kindness, who has 
never bestowed anything of value upon one needy 
brother without also helping to symmetrize and 
make more beautiful the thought of the world, 
greatly adding to the riches of the great Common¬ 
wealth. It is equally true that charitable institu¬ 
tions have been endowed, colleges have been built 
and sustained, public libraries have been equipped 
with all the best literature of the ages, while 
such institutions have been only memorials of the 
misanthropist. 

To be favored with an opportunity to advance and 
improve the material and mental condition of one’s fel- 
lowmen, and then to perform such act with unworthy 
sentiments or with a view of making a display for 


SER VICE. 


65 


selfish aggrandizement, is a malefeasance of that 
high office and power which material wealth has 
given. A gift, in order to represent the greatest 
possible value, must include with it the life of the 
donor. 

“ Who gives himself with his alms feeds three, 

Himself, his hungry neighbor, and Me.” 

The man who is a servant to the people, who gives 
his life, without reservation, for the good of others, 
who uses his resources, without stint, to meet the 
physical, spiritual, and mental wants of the com¬ 
munity is, though a servant, clothed in the regal 
splendor of honorable manhood. 

Has not the soul of man sometimes been veiled in 
darkness and become “penny-poor” in its “pound- 
plenty ” process of giving ? It is not best to place 
too high an estimate upon things purely material 
unless in their use, divine purposes are answered. 
Too great significance cannot be attached to the 
spirit and thought given to the world’s service. 

No thought of placing the beneficiary under 
obligations for services rendered or under allegiance 


66 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


to any belief of a social, political, or religious creed, 
or even a demand for the reciprocity of friendship, 
should accompany any favor bestowed. There 
should be a complete surrender of the best there is 
in self, with the supreme desire to make all others 
happier thereby, and to endow each heart with the 
motive power of love that will enable them to 
join their chariot of life to the purposes of the 
Almighty. 

Through the process of giving one’s self as a 
willing sacrifice upon the altar of human need, 
thought co-operation is established, and by con¬ 
junctive thought, all selves are kept more closely in 
touch with the Supreme Self. Like the swinging of 
the pendulum of the clock which divides time into 
seconds, has the great pendulum of human thought 
been separating the interests of mankind into indi¬ 
vidual units, but now signs are apparent upon the 
horizon of human advancement, of an advent of 
tremendous impulse for co-operative thought and 
action. 

A deeper devotion for the welfare of all is needed 




SERVICE. 67 

and a rendering of the same to the world. This 
altruistic spirit is in conformity with the operation of 
that law, by and through which, divine power is 
derived. To work in conformity therewith, infuses 
warmth and cheer into all environments, gives to 
self, as to all others, a greater peace and joy, as well 
as physical power and vigor. Through a true self¬ 
less benevolence, association is gained with realities 
of eternal significance. 

Beneath the rough exterior of humanity exists far 
more beautiful qualities than could possibly be deter¬ 
mined from a superficial view of their expression. 
Benevolence, true Christian charity, good-will, phil- 
anthrophy and unselfishness are at the centre of all 
mankind, innately, because at the heart, or centre, is 
God, from whom are derived all vitalizing powers, all 
of beauty, and the germ of every divine attribute. 

Sometimes man is unconsciously a more faithful 
servant to his neighbors’ needs than he realizes. 
Even an unconscious practise of virtue is attended 
with good results, not only to the world at large but 
also to him who unwittingly lives such moral life. It 


68 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


is often a pathway to a realization of virtue’s value, a 
means of attaining a conscious relationship with 
divine similitude. A man does not study medicine 
because he expects to be always suffering with colic 
himself, but because he knows of the prevalence of 
physical ills, and therefore that there will be a 
demand for his services. No one learns how to spin 
cotton because he means to fill large storehouses 
with yarn, but because he knows that this product is 
a general necessity. It is always the general service 
which calls for and determines all individual 
proficiency. 

At the portals of each individual life is inscribed 
the consciousness that all are brethren; that personal 
pleasure and gratification are not the purposes of 
living; that every man’s duties lie just where the 
needs of his fellowmen most loudly call; that the 
highest good is reaped in pursuing a universal ser¬ 
vice to the great brotherhood of humanity, thus 
fulfilling the design of Infinite Love. This humani¬ 
tarian spirit has been thus nobly expressed by Rev. 
John Newton: “I see in this world two heaps — 


SERVICE. 


69 


one of human happiness and one of misery. Now, 
if I can take the smallest bit from the second heap 
and add to the first, I carry a point. If, as I go 
home, a child has dropped a halfpenny, and if, by 
giving it another, I can wipe away its tears, I feel 
that I have done something. I should be glad, 
indeed, to do great things, but I will not neglect 
such little ones as these.” 

“ Honor the Lord with thy substance, and the first- 
fruits of all thine increase, so shall thy barns be filled 
with plenty, and thy presses burst out with new wine.” 
A mere bestowal of material wealth, having some 
ulterior purpose back of such action, will seldom be 
rewarded according to scriptural promise. If it were, 
selfishness, ere this, would have discovered in it a 
means of profitable investment. The spirit and 
manner of giving, of whatever name or nature, should 
‘‘honor” the God within, and copy divine methods. 
A man may be strictly honest toward others, in the 
commercial world, and at the same time lack the 
spirit of real honesty and benevolence. A commer¬ 
cially honest man who benefits society by his example 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


70 

of integrity, may offset this good influence by his 
personal selfishness. 

It has been said concerning the false standard of 
the selfish man, that “To maintain an extensive 
establishment, to carry high before the world, to 
settle his children respectably in life, to maintain a 
system of costly self-indulgence, — these are the 
objects that swallow up all his gains, and keep him in 
a constant fever and covetousness at the sight of 
others’ prosperity, rendering him loth to part with 
a fraction of his property for benevolent purposes, 
and making him feel as if every farthing of his money 
so employed were a diversion of that farthing from 
the great ends of life. New channels of benevolence 
may open around him in all directions, but, as far as 
he is concerned, those channels must remain dry; 
for, like the sand of the desert, he absorbs all the 
bounty which heaven rains on him, and still craves 
for more.” Such a life is not respectable, because of 
its selfishness, and it is too narrow to be successful. 

No one should limit his thoughts to money alone, 
when practising benevolence. Gold is the least of 


SERVICE. 71 

gifts. It is the spirit of true self-hood-ness, not self¬ 
ness, the God within, which prompts to benevolent 
acts, kindness and generosity. “ Benevolence, in the 
broadest sense, is not only essential to a decent 
character, but is essential to a sane mind and a sound 
heart.” That soul has gained emancipation from the 
bondage of selfishness who has lived such a life as to 
be able, when the curtain is falling upon all scenes of 
human activity, to say conscientiously, with Bonar: 

“ Up, and away, like the colors of sunset, 

That sweeten the twilight as darkness comes on; 

So be my life, — a thing felt, but not noticed, 

Only remembered by what I have done. 

“ Not myself, but the truth that in life I have spoken, 

Not myself, but the seed that in life I have sown, 

Shall pass on to ages — all about me forgotten, 

Save the truths I have spoken, the good I have done. 

“ So let my living be, so be my dying, 

So let my name lie unblazoned, unknown; 

Unpraised and unmissed, I shall still be remembered, 
Yes, but remembered by what I have done.” 


72 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


CHAPTER IX. 


INHERENT POWER. 


O completely did Christ feel the indwelling power 



^ of God that he could say, “ All power is given 
unto me, both in heaven and in earth.” Supreme 
realization ! Centuries of wrong thought-suggestion, 
(it can hardly be called thinking, for a few have done 
all the thinking for the many), has led mankind to 
look upon itself as a weak, impotent “ worm of the 
dust,” and, as a consequence, its birthright of power 
has dwindled into a reflection of that mistaken 
thought-picture. 

In whatever condition man has found himself, he 
has sought consolation from the thought that Divine 
Providence so ordered it. However angular or dis¬ 
cordant life seemed, some satisfaction has been 
gained in the assurance that “ God knoweth best.” 
Recent years have wrought wonderful changes in 
this respect, and now, more than ever before, man 


INHERENT ROWER. 


73 


refuses to submit to unripe conditions, but is com¬ 
pelling all circumstances to surrender their sover¬ 
eignty to his will, realizing as he does that the 
human will, in accordance with the Divine Will, is 
* lord of conditions, the creator of circumstances rather 
than their servile creature. 

The inherent power of man has only in a few iso¬ 
lated cases been realized. All power was Christ’s 
because of his recognition of his true relation to God, 
because of his conscious at-one-ment, which enabled 
him to declare “I and my Father are one.” Is it 
possible for any man to likewise say, “All power is 
given unto me ” ? Of a truth it may be said by all. 
Does not all power dwell in God, and does not God 
dwell in each of His children ? But a realization of 
His power is necessary before it can be used. The 
elephant is led about with a hook and kept in com¬ 
plete subjection to man, whose physical strength is 
less than a hundredth part of his own, simply because 
of his imperfect comprehension of his own power. 
Man also fashions his life in puerile grooves, limits 
his own grasp of power because of his human sepa¬ 
rateness from Omnipotence. 


74 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


Science reveals that every chemical property found 
in the earth and atmosphere are also to be found in 
man. What latent forces have been discovered in 
these latent elements! Steam and electricity (and 
that new motive power, which is destined to work a 
mechanical revolution, liquid air, to the perfect 
development of which Mr. Chas. E. Tripler is devot¬ 
ing his life) have been brought to pay tribute to 
man’s ingenuity, revealing a giant in intellectual 
resources of power. Where is the prophet bold 
enough to predict what fifty years more will unfold ? 
In all these discoveries, the power of God innate in 
man is displayed. And other powers are at man’s 
command just as soon as he is competent to manage 
them, and sufficiently in earnest to discover them. 

God’s life throbs in the puffing steam as it hurls 
the train of movable palaces, temporarily inhabited 
by his children, across a continent whose shores are 
tied together with a ribbon of steel. Man’s victory 
over space and approach to Omnipresence is felt in 
the electric spark, which has become an intelligent 
carrier for transmitting thought across continents, or, 


INHERENT POWER. 75 

through the deep ocean’s bed to weave a girdle 
around the earth. 

Aristotle said, “ One must not obey those who bid 
us ‘ think humbly as being mortal men, ’ ” nay, rather, 
we should indulge immortal longings, and strive to 
gain a full unfoldment of that divine possibility 
within us which, though now dwarfed and stunted, is 
throbbing with that unexpressed potency, which is 
indeed each man’s proper self. By living nearer an 
immortal standard our true individuality will be 
developed, the image and likeness of the divine 
pattern become a clearer reflection. 

Disease, that affliction of the human family, that 
nightmare and illusion of the race, which is purely 
the product of very bad habits of thinking, as asso¬ 
ciated with self, or hereditary tendencies, may be 
most completely relegated to oblivion, by a complete 
cognition of this inherent power, which is man’s 
birthright. The God within is all sufficient for 
every human need, physical or spiritual. The mind 
may recognize the existence of matter, on the plane 
of expression, but is in no sense its servant, and save 


?6 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


when fettered by false education, is always the 
master of its physical kingdom. There are other 
diseases than those of the body, whose cure likewise 
lies within man’s province. 

Moral impotency exists, where the passions for a 
time appear as iron-handed dictators. In business, 
political, and professional life, conscience is squared 
by a false standard of health or wholesomeness. 
Many men in the various marts of trade or society, 
have so long indulged in conscience opiates, that 
they are really scoundrels without knowing it. 

The standard of moral healthfulness in the nation 
will be determined largely by that criterion of a 
righteous principle to which a strict allegiance is 
given. There can be but one true standard of jus¬ 
tice and purity, and that is the matrix of the Divine 
within. 

Small good would be accomplished by saying to 
this class of diseased people, ‘‘You should forsake 
your present ways of living.” If a man were deaf, it 
would be an aggravation to inform him that he 
“ ought to hear,” and it would be no more advisable 
to thus treat any defect of character. 


INHERENT POWER. 


77 


The parent who constantly impresses upon the 
child its shortcomings is unwittingly sowing seeds 
of error which only divine power can save from their 
legitimate fruit in the debasement of that once fair 
image of God, until, as a sequel, it is clothed in the 
stripes of the convict. 

External expressions may be angular and uncouth, 
but the divine ideal is always symmetrical and beau¬ 
tiful. It is always the most precious gem, the jewel 
of greatest worth, which receives the most care in 
polishing and burnishing and that best repays the 
labor bestowed upon it. The joiner draws his chalk¬ 
line along the rough-skinned giant of the forest, with 
no thought of its external encasement, and hews to 
the line, taking no note of the chips wasted in his 
efforts, his chief object being to relieve the timber 
within from its external husk and make of it a well- 
proportioned member of the structure he is rearing. 
It is thus that character should be builded, according 
to the divine model within the soul. 

Useless would be the attempt to persuade a people 
that our potatoes were excellent food by offering 


78 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


them only the outer skin. So will man find difficulty 
at every step, in any effort which he may make to 
convince his fellowmen of his own value, by offering 
them simply the external personality. He must 
unfold the divine element within and then project it 
into the world. 

Every soul must work out its own salvation, must 
awaken to its need through the quickening of the 
germ within, through the hunger and thirst of the 
unsatisfied soul which craves divine communion, the 
crowning of its true self-hood with the regal power of 
Infinity. How often the emergency of sudden need 
has developed great souls to be leaders of the people 
in a manner to surprise even the chief actors them¬ 
selves, the powers of oratory, poetry or generalship, 
lying latent within, being hitherto unsuspected. 

“ Thou dost not dream what forces lie in thee, 

Vast and unfathomed as the grandest sea.” 

All improvements in self will be the result of a 
cognition of inherent capabilities, and also such 
emanations will, like an arrow of golden light, 
illumine the pathway of all humanity. 


INHERENT POWER. 


79 


“ How far that little candle sheds its beams, 

So shines a good deed in this naughty world.” 

Good deeds are the legitimate results of a recog¬ 
nition of an ability to perform them, while such an 
ability generates a disposition towards beneficent 
action. Has not mankind an inherent power to 
always do good, since his innate capacity is like unto 
God’s ? God is incapable of doing evil, therefore, a 
recognition of the God power which dwelleth in 
every soul gives a potency in quality, if not in magni¬ 
tude, like unto the perfection of the great Over-Soul, 
who is always good and in whose goodness is “no 
variableness nor shadow of turning.” 

When related to its proper sphere, this inherent 
power gives freedom from all jarring, all evil thought, 
and that fearful curse — Fear. It brings vigor and 
life to things inert and dead, and with its refreshing 
waters clothes the barren fields of human experience 
with a verdure of continual opportunities, nobly 
improved. Talents that are buried or neglected are 
by its force exhumed and placed at a profitable 
usury, so that unto him who hath shall be given, 


8 o 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


more and more abundantly, while the Infinite works 
in and through us, His will and pleasure. 

The many ills common to all life can be averted or 
grandly borne only by the exercise of this divine, 
inherent power. This innate, Godlike quality always 
images the pure and the good, while in turn the image, 
through reflex action, helps to make the man. Old 
age is seldom a welcome guest, and yet humanity is 
persistently, though unconsciously, inviting it. Like 
an electric button, the enunciator of old age is 
expectantly pressed more firmly with the advance of 
years. Nothing so hastens decrepitude as thinking 
of worn-out conditions. Press the button of vigorous 
and healthy thought and, like an electric light, these 
elements will enter the darkened regions of weari¬ 
ness and decrepitude. Nothing really grows old 
but the human consciousness, since on the psycho¬ 
logical plane the body is daily and hourly renewed, 
and we live our real life in a realm where Time 
is not. 

With this inherent power as a conscious posses¬ 
sion, the beauty of all nature renders to the soul a 


INHERENT POWER. 


81 


continual feast and blessing, and when by the seaside, 
the pebbles will sing and the waves will chant God’s 
glories. The mountains will inspire and uplift, the 
firmament will show forth His handiwork: the 
silence of the night will be vocal with sweet music: 
the stars will appear like the eyes of God’s tender¬ 
ness, and the beauty of every human soul in any 
guise will be seen, since the beauty of the Lord our 
God rests upon us all. 


82 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


CHAPTER X. 
life’s expression. 


“ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see 
your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.” 


OD presents problems for mankind to solve, 
but keeps no guard of secrecy over any truth. 
The treasures of wisdom are not locked within His 
breast. All unwise secrecy, which so often governs 
human action, is of close affinity to selfishness or 
fear, which are not divine attributes and should be 
outgrown by man. 

Love casteth out all fear and makes of humanity 
a unit. True manhood can have no interests which 
are not universal interests. Selfish ambition has 
held men in all walks of life, to put their “light 
under a bushel” instead of “on a candlestick.” 
“Ye are the light of the world. A city that sets 
on an hill cannot be hid.” Then let your light 
shine. Millions have starved while eating juiceless 


LIFE'S EXPRESSION. 


83 


verbiages of doctrine, in their vain effort to get at 
the real sustenance which these wordy concoctions 
covered, or eclipsed. Many souls have groped 
blindly in darkness while seeking the Light which 
shines for all. 

It is plainly the duty of every teacher to inform 
those who are now in ignorance, and to share with 
them the measure of wealth he holds. The truth 
should be so presented that the plain, common people, 
the untutored minds, can comprehend it. In many 
instances, sentences containing grand truths could 
be selected from the precepts of preachers, which 
are clothed in such language, and with such tech¬ 
nical stilted dignity, that pedantry is more readily 
discernible than truth, at least by the novice. In 
days that are past, a priesthood, of questionable 
value to the world, kept the truth, as it was dis¬ 
covered, carefully guarded within their own precincts, 
fearing if this knowledge became universal, that their 
power over the people would speedily end. 

This seclusive spirit has been, through a miscon¬ 
ception of right methods, transmitted to our present 


8 4 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


condition of society. The country Squire, by virtue 
of this fact, is almost worshipped by his fellow cit¬ 
izens ; he is looked upon as a creation of some 
special order. So powerful is he, that a line fence 
cannot be run, a farm cannot be sold, or a last will 
and testament be drawn, without his assistance. 

Even that tinker of timepieces, commonly called 
a jeweler, examines the lagging mechanism of some 
recreant watch which is unable longer to respond 
to the pressure of the mainspring, simply because of 
accumulated dust, assumes as wise a look as he can 
resurrect, shakes his head dolefully and, with an air 
of mystery, tells you that he finds the jewels all worn 
out or broken; that it will be a difficult matter, at 
best, to repair it, but nevertheless for a certain fee, 
his wisdom will be equal to the emergency. 

The dentist will look in the mouth presented to 
him for inspection, and after a few moments of care¬ 
ful examination, wrinkling his face with significant 
frowns, he finds the majority of its masticators, from 
the incisors to the molars, in a serious condition. 
He will proceed to inform his victim of this terrible 


LIFE'S EXPRESSION. 85 

state of affairs in such language of technicalities as 
to leave no doubt in the sufferer’s mind of his fear¬ 
ful need of professional services, although no word 
uttered has been understood. 

Note the physician, likewise, as he feels the pulse- 
beat and applies the stethoscope to the heart of his 
patient. What a wise, solemn look mantles his here¬ 
tofore placid face ! It needs but an ominous shake 
of his head to cause the elastic mercury of hope to 
descend the human thermometer to the zero point. 
Then follows a deluge of information, dressed in 
such language that the patient, comprehending abso¬ 
lutely nothing of what has been said, concludes that 
his case must be a very bad one indeed. 

Alas for religion, pure religion! Religion that 
once burned brightly with purest flame upon the 
primitive hearthstone of life! Thy light has been 
hidden by an unworthy priesthood, under the bushel 
of creedal and dogmatic servitude. It will be the 
work of an intelligent laity, ridded of priestcraft, to 
uncover its glorious light and place it again, tenderly 
and reverently, upon the golden candlestick of Truth, 


86 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


where it can be seen and felt by all men, and thus 
answer the demands of practical life. 

The social fabric of our civilization is also distin¬ 
guished for its ceremonial forms, empty pageants, 
and its lack of sincerity and veracity. Social life is 
so crowded with this cold, unfeeling, unnatural for¬ 
malism, that sound common-sense is often offended 
and feels itself compelled to step aside, and behold 
this hollow thing strut and stride before it. 

Thus this technical verbiage in law and philosophy, 
this dogmatic and creedal clutter in religion, this 
cold formalism in social life, each serve to transport 
its devotees into the clouds of unrealities, where they 
flit about upon the wings of stilted dignity, blind 
faith, and social egotism, until, as with all who aspire 
to a false height, their wings fail them, and they fall 
to mundane levels. 

The real sphere of man’s action is just as wide as 
his interest in humanity, and it is not usually of the 
philosopher or scientist that complaint of a secret 
hoarding of truth could be made, for his services can¬ 
not receive too great a meed of praise from all who 


LIFE'S EXPRESSION. 


87 


are seeking knowledge. As Carlyle says, “ He has 
to travel without highway, companionless, through 
an inorganic chaos, and leaves his own life and faculty 
lying there, as a partial contribution towards pushing 
some highway through.” He is not infrequently the 
companion of poverty which teaches him many 
severe lessons, and he is ever filled with that courage 
which can pray to 

“ Give him a spirit that on life’s rough sea, 

Would have his sails filled with a lusty wind, 

Even until his sailyards tremble — his masts crack — 

And his rapt ship runs on her sides so low 
That she drinks water, and her keel plows air.” 

Yet, after spending his life in digging from their 
hidden places rare nuggets of golden truth, he often 
covers them again under a verbose pile of technicali¬ 
ties, where it is almost as difficult to find them as 
when they were originally discovered. 

Never fear of robbing self by sharing all you may 
gain of truth with others. Jesus taught openly in 
the temple to the multitude. If you have freely 
received, freely give, and the recipient of your boun¬ 
ties will render back new powers of energy and a 


88 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


grander inspiration for renewed efforts in obtaining 
a larger truth, with mutual profit. “As we have 
opportunity,.let us do good unto all men.” Let each 
contribute whatever light and knowledge he has 
gained to illuminate the darkness of other lives. 

Looking, on one occasion, at what seemed to be a 
rude and uncouth cross, in a panoramic exhibition of 
Pilgrim’s Progress, emotions were rather repelled 
than excited, and while wondering why such an exhi¬ 
bition should appear in the midst of so many beautiful 
paintings, a light suddenly flashed upon it, a little 
film of gauze was raised, and a sublime conception of 
the Cross appeared. What produced this magical 
change ? It was light — the potent agency of light! 
Then project the light of truth into the darkened 
recesses of life, and the revelation will be magical. 
Lift the veil of false covering from all acquired 
truth, and 

“ Let the light 

Pour through fair windows, broad as Truth itself 
And high as God.” 

Throw all possible light into the vibrating ocean of 
life’s expression. Every word uttered and every 


LIFE'S EXPRESSION. 89 

thought excited produces a vibration in the atmos¬ 
phere, never entirely ceasing, leaving us still moving 
among the inaudible words of our progenitors. The 
voices of Beecher, of Paine, Parker, and Phillips are 
echoing still. There, is a sense in which every 
uttered word lives forever. It lives to influence the 
speaker as well as that vast audience of a world 
of listeners. 

Nature is like the sun, she is a storehouse of light, 
and the light is there to be shed abroad. Nature is 
like the clouds, a storehouse of waters, to descend in 
showers of blessing. There is nothing in Nature but 
what is meant to be distributed, and Nature and Man 
are one. No one is enriched by reserving and hoard¬ 
ing any mental, moral or spiritual attainment. If you 
know how to get wealth of any kind, tell the world 
how to get it; it will not detract from your oppor¬ 
tunity to get more, and a reluctance to impart such 
information is at best leaving your methods open to 
suspicion, and relating you to selfishness. 

To enjoy the goal of Truth, its price must be placed 
upon God’s great altar of human needs. If you have 


90 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


traveled and beheld the fairest realms, climbed the 
summits of the Alps, or traversed valleys of pictu¬ 
resque beauty, project all this harvest of beautiful 
results into human life, and you will add to its varied 
expression a freshness, a vivacity, a force, an energy 
and a power that will prove immortal. 

The earth of the past was conceived as a flat sur¬ 
face simply because ignorance declared it so. God 
made the earth and consequently it is of a spherical 
form, and through his human agents, when they 
were developed to receive the same, he proclaimed 
this truth concerning it. This was a proclamation 
of far more importance than the world could then 
comprehend. A different model or pattern for 
thought was placed before mankind by this grand 
revelation. Prior to this revealment men and insti¬ 
tutions were like unto the shape of their earth — 
flat and angular. It is said that all expressions of 
architectural thought in the spirit world tend to the 
oval or circular. 

With this oval, symmetrical conception, the cubical 
angularities of life began to be moulded into the 


LIFE'S EXPRESSION. 


91 

spherical beauty of man’s new conception of God’s 
thought. The Soul-man has since then come into 
nearer conformity with God’s pattern. Man’s ability 
of advancement, progression and utility is to be seen 
in the symmetry of his mind. A young man once 
desiring to become a dentist, visited a gentleman of 
that profession for some advice as to his probable 
ability for future success in that line of work. The 
doctor simply presented the young man with a 
square block of plaster and said, “ Carve out of that 
cube the best shaped egg you can, after which I will 
render my judgment of your ability.” It was a most 
practical test, the man of experience knowing the 
result of the aspirant’s efforts would be a type of his 
soul’s symmetry and unfoldment. The individual 
adjustment to all other individuals is proportionate 
to universal soul-symmetry. Perfect adjustment 
upon the soul plane should be the goal of all striving. 
Make the sphericity of self a chief aim, and then by 
the charm of which such a self-hood is capable, 
carefully and tenderly endeavor to round off and 
smooth the character of all other selves by projecting 


92 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


the truth which you have gained into a world of need. 
Your soul will not realize its God-given birthright of 
freedom until every other soul is also free, as the 
universal brotherhood of man is recognized as an 
essential feature of the Fatherhood of God. 


RECEPTIVITY. 


93 


CHAPTER XI. 

RECEPTIVITY. 

T IUMANITY is related to none others than its 
best friends. Conditions which are the best 
agencies for progress, at any given time, may not be 
• the same which obtain for that end, at some subse¬ 
quent period. The careful observer can scarcely fail 
to conclude that even the most unpleasant circum¬ 
stances, which gain admittance to life, linger no 
longer in one’s surroundings, than rebellion against 
them ceases, or until they are recognized as friends 
in disguise, and their mission appropriated. All are 
ever living in the midst of experiences, not one of 
which occurs by chance, or is sent, save to teach 
valuable and necessary lessons. 

These seemingly unfriendly companions find cer¬ 
tain sharp corners of character, or disposition, which 
they alone can destroy, and as soon as their work has 
been perfected, they beat a quick retreat to make 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


94 

room for some other operative agency in the realm 
of cause and effect. It is a mathematical certainty 
that two things cannot occupy the same place at the 
same time. Everything in Nature is an agency of 
causation ; and all natural agencies find a sequence 
in effects, never ceasing to apply their energy until 
that result is established. As Nature is strictly 
economical in the use of her energy, no agent of 
cause remains operative a moment after its work is 
properly done. 

It is not wise to conclude that all sorrow, pain and 
disease are the products of nature, for there are laws 
also operative which are very closely allied to the 
realm of perverted naturalism. It is not true that 
all the ills of life are the product of divine wisdom, 
or, as the theologian would affirm, “sent by God” ; 
on the contrary, they are always the production of 
human ignorance. Wisdom is the unrelenting enemy 
of ignorance, and the moulding process of her laws, 
even though severe, is always the voice of God. 
Perverted naturalism will suffer infliction until 
destroyed by illumined Nature. Ignorance of health, 


RECEPTIVITY. 


95 


or fear of disease, upon any plane of life, will be 
visited by wisdom, God’s agent, until illness is 
recognized as an unreality, therefore, having no 
power. Welcome and receive this divine teacher 
and render a willing and most studious obedience to 
her counsels. Man’s life should be like the day, 
more beautiful in the evening; or like the Summer 
which glows with promise of the coming Autumn, 
with its golden sheaves of harvest and fruitage. 

It is always best to receive all natural agencies 
philosophically, and with a soul-passivity, adjust 
them to our needs. If the seed could speak, it 
might raise an objection to being placed in the dark, 
cold ground, and the farmer who placed it there 
might be considered its natural enemy. It might 
prefer being placed in some dry, sunny place, but 
what would be the relative results of the seeds thus 
dealt with ? The one in the dark ground will germi¬ 
nate, and expand, until it bursts into the shining air, 
and finally becomes productive of elements of nour¬ 
ishment for human needs ;.the other adds nothing to 
the common good of life. If primitive, angular 


9 6 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


humanity had had no other experience than that of 
delight and pleasure, it would have remained cubical 
and grotesque, and would never have contributed to 
the beautiful symmetry of God’s purposes. 

The shortsightedness of mankind in its novitiate 
state, is quite incapable of comprehending the ends 
or finalities of divine purposes. The attention is so 
closely concentrated upon the consideration of means, 
that ends are often forgotten. What seems favor¬ 
able to present enjoyment is most acceptable to the 
average person, while a broader view would perhaps 
decide the same thing to be the worst of enemies. 
The boy cannot always understand the necessity of 
being closely applied to study. Perchance he sees 
another boy who is not forced to such discipline, and 
by this comparison chafes under the requirements of 
school life. In a few years, however, the results of 
these widely divergent means appear in the light of 
consequences. Reflection upon results, on the one 
hand, always generates thankfulness for the disci¬ 
pline received, and on the other, remorse for having 
evaded it. 


RECEPTIVITY. 


97 

Mankind, at whatever age of life, is in a school of 
discipline, and he who is wise enough to appropriate 
the means, which are of divine appointment, will 
gather sunshine from the retrospect and find himself 
equipped with power, which experience has given, to 
cope with all the duties of coming time. Learn to 
utilize every stroke of nature, live in the confusion 
and noise of life’s battles; lift with those who lift, 
and receive upon your shoulders a fair share of life’s 
burdens. To repel these features is only to postpone 
the testing hour. Perform the present duties now, 
and if, by so doing, you shall have merited a rest 
to-morrow, it will doubtless be found that that rest 
will come in an activity which knows no jar, because 
of a proper adjustment to every duty, through the 
experiences of the past. Idleness is not rest. Rest 
consists in a never-ceasing activity in doing good. 
Receive and welcome such work as it is sent; train 
the brain and correspondingly the muscles, so that 
all labor will become but a process of exhilaration. 

“ Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice; 

Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.” 


gS CUBES AND SPHERES. 

It needs but a moment’s reflection to see the 
wisdom of this Shakespearean advice. It will always 
prove advantageous to be receptive to every expres¬ 
sion of thought. Receptivity to true thought, like 
the welcoming of experience, will construct before 
the thinking apparatus a sieve of intelligence, the 
meshes of which will, with unerring precision, sepa¬ 
rate the good from the bad, the valuable from the 
worthless, and the wholesome from the unhealthy. 

The seemingly insignificant things of life fre¬ 
quently become most valuable teachers. It is a 
truth, even of giants, that “a little child shall lead 
them.” The apparently trite circumstance of the 
falling apple proclaimed a truth to the world of vast 
importance. Apples had been previously falling from 
the trees for centuries, but this particular apple not 
only fell to the ground, but at the same time fell 
into a receptive mind which utilized the phenomenon 
for the establishment of a universal law. 

Spiders had been spinning their webs across man¬ 
kind’s pathway for thousands of years, and they had 
been pushed away as a nuisance, but one of these webs 


RECEPTIVITY. 99 

crossed the nose of Sir Samuel Brown, and from his 
nose, sensitive nerves (conveyors of thought) 
extended to the receptive brain with the result that 
from that web was recognized the “Suspension 
Bridge.” “ Go to the ant, thou sluggard,” and receive 
instruction. All books, sermons, and even conversa¬ 
tions on the street corners may not be altogether 
good, but each of these will be very poor indeed if 
they contain no helpful thought. 

On the rocks of the seashore may be seen marine 
creatures living, when the tide is out, not in 
the pools it leaves, but on the dry and naked rocks, 
and in the broiling sun. Twice a day the tide comes 
in, when they open their shelly mouths and drink 
enough to last them until its return. Can there be 
any good reason for humanity to copy the methods 
of these creatures ? Should the soul ever be closed, 
or held in seclusion from God’s great ocean of wealth ? 
That soul will be the richest which follows the reced¬ 
ing tide of circumstances and plunges into the deep 
sea of life’s multitudinous phenomena. Sow beside 
all waters ; secrete thy pearls from the deep recesses 


l.ofC. 


IOO 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


of every experience, none of which can be spared by 
the receptive soul who craves realization of at-one- 
ment with God. 

The beautiful lily, tossing upon the crested waves, 
is the embodiment of purity and sweetness, although 
it gained its expression from the filth of its earthly 
anchorage. That lily is the production of the thought 
of God. He also is rearing something fairer, a beau¬ 
tiful temple of life, for His indwelling spirit. It is 
rising from the confusion and dirt of mundane 
experiences, but as it is reared through the turbulent 
waters of vicissitudes, it will be purified and then 
glorified. 

“ White souls fall not, oh my poet, 

They rise to the fairest place.” 

Humanity is naturally receptive. If the gates of 
wrongly-directed energy are closed, and wider ave¬ 
nues opened, good thought, knowledge and power 
will more readily flow in. These qualities pour from 
a reservoir having limitless resources, and as inca¬ 
pable of being exhausted as eternity is of having an 
end. Let the soul be ever open to receive each les- 


RECEPTIVITY. 


IOI 


son of wisdom from the Great Teacher, recognizing 
only the Good in every experience. 

It has been persistently impressed upon the mind 
by certain teachers that all things of this world are 
but bubbles of vanity, and that the real, enduring 
things are reserved for the next sphere of conscious¬ 
ness. It would not be in harmony with good judg¬ 
ment to deny to much of this world’s wealth, a 
transitory nature. What the next world is, or what 
it contains of either duty or pleasure, very little is 
absolutely known. It would seem to be in harmony 
with good reason to suppose that all things on this 
plane of expression are for use, and that in their use 
an experience will be gained which will be of incal¬ 
culable assistance in performing the duties of the 
next sphere of life. It is right to receive all of God’s 
bounties, and enrich the soul with the proper use of 
all such possessions. Through a proper reception of 
the lessons which the things of this life teach, all the 
words and letters of the great book of Nature are 
daguerreotyped on the spirit; they are forever held 
as priceless legacies upon the tablet of the soul, and 
read as by a beam of light from the Central Sun. 


102 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


CHAPTER XII. 

INDIVIDUAL EFFORT. 

O ELFISHNESS is the language of the personal 
^ man, and it is not until he outgrows the lower 
personality that his diviner self, that individuality 
which is immortal, gains recognition and expression. 

Selfishness is a cruel tyrant. It perpetuates 
antagonisms in society, lends its approval to war, 
smiles upon the uneven conflict between the wealthy 
classes and the poverty-stricken masses, and renders 
more grievous the burdens of the toiling millions. 

Personal consideration sanctioned the cruel sin of 
negro slavery and now endorses a worse kind of serf¬ 
dom. It generates hypocrisy and cupidity, and casts 
a shadow of sadness and gloom upon a world whose 
every pulse-beat should throb with the warm tides of 
universal, unselfish Love. 

No man is doing his best for society who is not 
making the most of himself by developing and 


INDIVID UAL EFFOR T. 103 

unfolding the angel within. It is an obligation that 
rests with every individual toward the establish¬ 
ment of order and harmony on earth. Discordant 
melody will obtain until perfect harmony is appre¬ 
ciated, and then local frets and jarring tones will not 
be noted in Evolution’s majestic pace, as man comes 
into perfect vibration with the throbbing of the 
Infinite Heart. 

There is love enough in universal self-hood, mould¬ 
ering under the rubbish pile of selfishness, to remove 
from the world every barbaric relic of torture, con¬ 
vert every hovel into a house of decency and com¬ 
fort, transform all dens of infamy into homes of 
purity, relieve humanity from its nightmare of fear, 
remove all physical and moral diseases, subdue and 
control all passions, until the kingdom of heaven 
shall dawn for the race while still embodied on earth. 

The acquirement of the highest unfoldment of the 
individual is enhanced when equal advantages and 
equal power to utilize the same are possessed by all. 
When a universal love is projected toward the 
interests of society, the possibility for all to live in 


104 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


the enjoyment of freedom and equality will be real¬ 
ized. But too much time is wasted in waiting for 
favorable opportunities for individual effort, when 
often the severe hardships, disappointments and 
trials best serve to evolve the true inner beauty and 
value of the soul. 

They, it is said, who were clothed “in white 
robes ” were those who had come out of great tribu¬ 
lation, whose progress had fared, over the thistle-beds 
of life, the experience of constant friction. 

Nature’s evolutionary unfoldment proceeds over 
similar paths. Through cyclone, earthquake and 
devastating floods, expressions of beauty and fruitage 
are finally reached. Each little atom performs its 
part in shaping and moulding the perfect sphere. 
Likewise individuals lose their sense of separateness, 
one from the other, in a community of interests for 
the advancement of the race. Each one then regards 
its self-hood solely as an instrument to use and be 
used for the universal good. Hence comes the 
necessity for exertion, the individual effort of every 
soul as co-worker with the Over-Soul, through Its 


INDIVIDUAL EFFORT. 


105 


revealment in Nature and in man. At this shrine, 
no selfish desires can be heard or answered, since the 
personality is merged into the real self-hood, which it 
is the purpose of life to evolve. “ Every human soul is 
a sculptor,” and all selfish desires and ambitions 
must feel the keen-edged chisel of this inexorable 
artist. 

“The old world is effete; there man with man 
Jostles, and in the brawl for means to live, 

Life is trod under foot, — Life, the one block 
Of marble that’s vouchsafed wherefrom to carve 
Our great thoughts, white and Godlike, to shine down 
The future, Life, the irredeemable block, 

Which one o’erhasty chisel-dint oft mars, 

Scanting our room to cut the features out 

Of our full hope, so forcing us to crown 

With a mean head the perfect limbs, or 

Leave the God’s face glowing o’er a satyr’s trunk — 

Failure’s brief epitaph.” 


io6 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


EVOLUTION AND INVOLUTION. 


INVOLUTION has never been properly defined, 
^ because no definition has as yet comprehended 
it altogether; and what involution is in its truest, 
broadest sense, no man has adequately discerned. A 
definition serves only the purpose of the yardstick 
in measuring a web of cloth; it is the yardstick of 
the mind, gauges the capacity of mental faculties, or 
of man’s ability to comprehend. Evolution accom¬ 
modates its pace to the operation of natural law, and 
man has no very definite idea of the extent of 
natural law, so all-comprehensive is it, in its grand 
unfoldment, since finite minds cannot grasp the 
methods of the Infinite. 

The word “revolve” always conveys the idea of some^ 
thing turning round like a wheel, or planet. Elimi¬ 
nate the “ r ” from the word, and evolve is gained, 
which is the same word with its root changed. The 


EVOLUTION AND INVOLUTION ioj 

same idea is conveyed of something round, spherical, 
not necessarily turning on its axis, but of some¬ 
thing round being ejected, poured forth, as a man 
would pour out a barrel of apples, the little spheres 
rolling gracefully into some other receptacle. It is 
the destiny of evolution to reveal to all mankind the 
sphericity of Life, to show forth the beauty and 
symmetry that is possible, and in that revealment to 
awaken the knowledge of human angularities out of 
which growth must obtain, to enlarge progressive 
minds with a power to give knowledge to others 
from out themselves, by flashing back the light of 
revealment upon the path already trod. 

Involution very easily expresses the reverse of 
evolution, but is the opposite of evolution only in 
mode of expression ; its process being peculiarly the 
same, as in the example of the man pouring out 
apples which are evolving from the barrel, while the 
new receptacle is involving that which was evolved. 
Evolution and involution are but systematic modes 
of expression. These processes are eternal, having 
had no beginning and are to have no ending 


io8 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


Involved in human life are the principles of creation, 
the power of evolving; this being the product of the 
fact that Somebody, or Something, somewhere 
evolved this possibility into man, who received the 
involution of that which was evolved. The primal 
truth of evolution proclaims that the Source from 
which all receive this involved potency is God, the 
Fountain Head of all things — God, not as a person¬ 
ality, but as a contraction of the word Good. Inten¬ 
sify its meaning, and Omnipotent Good, as a deific 
principle, becomes God, the great Fountain Head, 
the Some Thing, that is, the Sum total of all things, 
the Totality of everything. This is what we mean 
by God. Man is the result of evolutionary laws, for 
evolution is but an expression of natural law, 
operative. All Nature and man are but instruments, 
keeping time to the inexorable rhythm of God’s baton. 

From the great Infinite Heart of all Truth, Life 
and Goodness, there has been involved in every 
human being, almost infinite possibilities; no matter 
how low he may be, the gradual process of divine 
unfoldment must go on toward a potency in quality, 


EVOLUTION AND INVOLUTION 


109 

of God, the Divine Perfection. The Infinite Heart 
beats and throbs with the physical heart-beat of every 
child of earth. This constant outbreaking in involu¬ 
tion, is ever teaching in many ways the purpose 
of this present expression of conscious life, which 
is one in principle and essence with the Godhood 
involved therein. 

The question might be asked, “What is the reason 
for this process ? ” a query which can only be par¬ 
tially answered. God is considered as Perfection, 
yet is no more so than man is, in a certain sense. 
What is more perfect than a young babe ? Look 
upon its eyes, its sweet mouth, each curve and soft 
outline of the little form, pure and delicate as a 
snowdrop fallen from the gardens of the angels into 
the mother’s lap. Nothing ever gains expression in 
the universe more divine than the little child, and 
yet with all its grace and beauty of attributes, it is 
perfect only as a child. It must expand and unfold 
through long days of external life into a riper man¬ 
hood or womanhood, must be perfected through the 
development of evolutionary laws. 


I IO 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


On the vegetable plane the same law silently holds 
sway, and every plant or weed conforms itself invari¬ 
ably to the aim of that law which compels it to grow. 
In the silent unfolding of that beautiful sisterhood of 
the floral kingdom, no fault-finding or grumbling is 
ever heard during the process of evolution ; nothing 
is discerned but an earnest endeavor to make the 
world more desirable, both to soul and sense, by its 
expression. This kingdom seems to evolve especially 
for the sweetening of all other life which is capable of 
appreciating it. This emphasizes a fact regarding 
individual life, viz.: that every man is capable of 
involving into some one else that which he holds of 
principle, essence, or wisdom. This is a part of the 
process of involution; it endows the thing involved 
with the capacity of evolving as well. 

It will be a bright day for the world when human¬ 
ity learns that it is not made up of isolated indi¬ 
viduals, but is one vast solidarity, the united family 
of God. God is working out the process of life with 
every one, and this evolutionary unfolding is going 
on, higher and better continually, throughout all 


EVOLUTION AND INVOLUTION 


I I I 


eternity. All life is activity and must bring out the 
involved principles of Life, according to the chart of 
God’s divine purposes. When this involved principle 
of one’s life pervades the character, it helps others to 
join the great procession of evolution. 

That which is involved is the godhood in man, a 
possession of his from eternity. God is All. You 
abide in Him and He in you, your Father which art 
in Heaven —that kingdom within. Life is given for 
the holy process of perfecting self-hood in growth, as 
the child is perfected in its maturity. Humanity is 
like God only in quality, not as perfect as He is in 
quantity, but the quantity of conscious nearness to 
divine attributes will increase just as fast as one cul¬ 
tivates the Godlike talent that has been given, by 
joining God’s bank of interest. 

All souls throughout the universal spheres are 
living the same life with humanity, the same life 
with God, consequently they are, in a certain sense, 
God. In the final analysis, this truth will reveal itself 
to every logical thinker, that he is not only living a 
life with God, but is living the life of God. 


I 12 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


And ever and forever as the ages roll, the great 
ocean of Life will throb and pulsate with God’s Love. 
It will beat against the headlands and granite cliffs 
of ignorance until they crumble and melt away, and 
over these ruined bulwarks the billows of Truth will 
sweep on and on, bearing upon their mighty crests, 
the ark of safety in which every expression of human 
life will float onward, and the involved is borne back 
into the Infinite Heart of God, from which it was 
primarily evolved. 


PROGRESS/ON. 


113 


CHAPTER XIV. 


PROGRESSION. 


S in every other department of Nature, law 



* takes cognizance also of progression, and gives 
apparent attention to every little detail pertaining to 
the modes of progression. Even those people who 
are not inclined to improve the opportunities which 
are thrown about them are still never neglected by 
this immutable law of God. Everybody is progress¬ 
ing ; they have to advance; they cannot help it, and 
ofttimes a person may be progressing very rapidly 
indeed, when to all external appearances he is not 
progressing at all. 

The egg-shell does not appear very different five 
minutes before the little chicken sticks its bill through 
it, in its effort to gain expression, than it did two or 
three weeks prior to this event, and yet within this 
little sphere, the process of life’s unfoldment is con¬ 
stantly going on till the climax comes, the shell is 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


I 14 

broken, and while development from this moment is 
more apparent, it is nevertheless no more pronounced 
or rapid than while in the invisible state of embryo. 

The standard by which mankind judges of the 
progress or of the quality of any soul is through the 
power of soul discernment. But, while many people 
have made a wonderful progress which is observed 
and understood, that progress which has been made, 
which humanity fails to see and understand, is infi¬ 
nitely more marvellous and wonderful than that which 
has been observed. The goodness, or lack of it, in a 
friend will be depicted in the light of the observer’s 
soul-perception of the true value of man’s character. 
If these observations are not expressed in words, they 
excite a thought-current, which goes out into the 
world as a living power, revealing the important fact 
that even the character of a thought should be well 
grounded and established upon the basic rock of truth 
in soul consciousness. 

All features of divine law are beautiful, but per¬ 
haps one of the most delightful attributes of the law 
under consideration is that it compels progression. 


PROGRESSION. 


I 15 

Progression is one of its first duties toward humanity. 
It is a question, indeed, if much progress had been 
made by mankind, had it not been for this exacting, 
inexorable law of Nature that reaches out its strong 
arm and places its hand on the shoulder of the indo¬ 
lent, as the policeman places his hand on the rec¬ 
reant citizen, who for the time is an uncivilized 
being. So this divine law, like the policeman, takes 
hold of the ignorant and unprogressive natures and 
leads, drags, and forces them on, until it brings them 
to that point where they begin to feel the need of 
co-operating themselves with the law. 

Law seems to many a hard taskmaster. It is, or 
is not, according to the development of the individ¬ 
ual. What matters it to some that a law exists pro¬ 
hibiting a man to steal ? They are not in the least 
affected by that law; and yet there are people cog¬ 
nizant of this law, through its. seeming tyranny in 
its relation to them, because it runs against the 
natural, ^natural proclivities of the man who wants 
to steal without incurring any penalty. 

“ Because the carnal mind is enmity against God,” 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


11 6 

the natural man is not, for he, the natural man, is 
subject to the Divine Will. The natural mind of 
man is good, and every natural act of man is good. 
When he commits an error he is giving expression 
to a perverted naturalness, which is another term for 
ignorance. Perverted naturalism must evolve into 
the natural. It is natural for man to progress and 
advance ; he is a natural conqueror, a natural grower. 
Man, the real ego, or self-hood, while residing in that 
expression known as the human, is ofttimes very 
nearly dormant, or dead, until the self, or real man¬ 
hood, is recognized by the man himself, until he him¬ 
self has had an introduction to himself. It may not 
seem natural for him to progress, but the law com¬ 
pels him to, until he personally lends his aid to that 
law which evermore demands progression. 

It is well for us to consider by what means we, as 
individuals, can make the best progress, A wrong 
course means a weary retracing of steps, beginning 
the journey over again. There is a great diversity 
of opportunities vouchsafed to man, and as a crown¬ 
ing feature, the brain was given to establish him as 


PROGRESSION. 


ii 7 


an arbiter. A great many people think they are 
progressive, simply .because they are successful in 
certain very limited directions, who when awakened, 
will discover that their lives are largely failures. It 
is necessary, therefore, that the spiritual as well as 
the mental judgment should be carefully exercised so 
as to correctly realize what true progress is. The 
value of any one’s progress might be questioned who 
has left undone even a single day’s work. 

Man is weaving a web, and each day the click of 
the shuttle, with lightning speed, sends its thread 
through the web. If, through neglect some day, the 
shuttle fails to perform its duty, the thread is left 
out and a tedious, unravelling process is necessary to 
correct that error, for the web must be perfect. “ Be 
ye perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” 
This seems to many a task that would be absolutely 
impossible to fulfil, and so it is; you cannot be per¬ 
fect now, but in quality you are just as perfect as 
your Father in heaven is perfect. You can never be 
in extent, until every duty of life is perfectly fulfilled. 
Then send the shuttle through the web every 




118 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


day, and make the design perfect as you go along. 

The grandeur and beauty of God’s process is seen 
in this fact, that He has taken down all barriers and 
limitations of time, and given to man Eternity, in 
which to unfold and perfect himself. 

There is a progression beyond this plane, far supe¬ 
rior to look upon, than that which is possible here in 
the mundane sphere. But frequently people pass 
into that fairer spirit world, who have left their life 
webs very imperfect, with many opportunities 
neglected. The web is therefore a very sorry specta¬ 
cle. How, then, get back to the dropped thread ? 
How retrace that intricate pattern ? The law of 
progress has also kindly provided for such sad needs 
as these. Yet, progress in spirit life is utterly 
impossible until the duties of this world have been 
attended to. Forgiveness of this error, if indeed for¬ 
giveness is ever extended to the man of errors, does 
not repair a single flaw. Forgiveness of sin is one 
thing, annulling its consequences, quite another. No 
one has power to forgive sin save God alone, and 
though He forgives error a thousand times, He has 


PROGRESSION. 


I 19 








established a natural law that declares thou shalt pay 
the penalty to the “uttermost farthing.” 

That person who, with the step of an elastic con¬ 
science, slips gracefully along the pathway of life, 
will find his journey out there in the world of souls 
not very delightful, for, as a spirit, he will find him¬ 
self obliged to take up old conditions, which he 
carelessly glided over, and painfully correct them. 
Heaven abhors a sloven, and will not permit of a 
slovenly job. One must be a man indeed to travel 
the highway of progress in the spirit world. 

Progress means activity here on earth ; it is the 
watchword of life in the World Eternal. There are 
but three possible positions for mankind, viz. : retro¬ 
gression, balance, and progression. The most unnat¬ 
ural is the first, the most difficult and almost 
impossible, the second, while the only really natural 
is the latter process. Progression is one with 
activity,—it always has been and always will be. 
There are two ways of getting out of the world of 
human consciousness, —to wear out, and to rust out. 
It will take longer to wear out than to rust out, for 
the law of atrophy is a cruel tyrant. 




120 


CUBES AND SPHERES. 


The tyranny of atrophy and decay holds no 
dominion or power over that aspiring life, which, 
through earnest, well-directed effort, squares all con¬ 
duct of life with the operations of natural law. 
Then work, work, WORK, yes, work every day and 
every night. All toilers will be the better for it, but 
should be careful in the selection of their kind of 
work. The world is brighter and better to-day because 
of what has been done by every loyal, tireless soul 
since yesterday. 

Eternal progress ! Thank God for that hour when 
the truth of eternal progression was revealed to the 
world, a growth which is unending, for however far 
one may advance, however high he may mount the 
ladder of progress, he will never reach the topmost 
round, for God covers the whole of it. All souls, 
becoming more spherical by mundane experiences, 
and thus more perfectly reflecting the Deific pattern, 
will be ever moving onward and upward, one in a 
certain devious path, and one in another, BUT ALL 
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